Disclaimer: I don't own any of the stuff from LoK. Zofia & Evike Audron, however, are my brain children. The first of several you will see, but not in this chapter. ;-)
Authors notes: So- what trap did the infamous Hylden put into action? Why did Kain throw Raziel into the Abyss and destroy his firstborn's clan? Read on, dear friends, and find out. :-D It may not make complete sense at the end of this chapter ;-) but it will before the end of the story. :-)
FYI- I revised the prologue just a bit, having decided that the 'Looking Pool' was a stupid name. :-p
Oh and- *squeezes Kro, DHA, Crazydragon & bahumut to death for reviewing* Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou! If I spelled your names wrong- heh, I was reading it off the reviews, so it's not my fault. ^_^
Chapter 2
"We walked right into their trap..."
Nosgoth ~ 500 B. C. ~ The Living World
Mobius smiled, practically gliding down the spiraling staircase that led into the depths of the Sarafan Stronghold. Down it plunged- so far into the earth that many whispered it led right into the fiery caverns of the Unspoken's bedchamber. Not that any of them had enough courage to try and discover where it went, not that they could have entered the door at the bottom anyway.
Foolish novices, Mobius thought, smirking. His thoughts drifted to a time the Sarafan Generals had berated their troops for spreading rumors of demon worship within the ranks of the soldiers. How amazed they would have been to know the corruption was much higher up.
Mobius smirked, then grimaced, remembering the losses they had suffered just moments ago, and who had caused them. Arrogant little parasite, he raged inwardly. Blue-fleshed thing and that blood-sucking master of his. Raziel hadn't been absorbed by the Reaver after all; saved by Kain at the last minute. This would cause setbacks.
Mobius finally came to the bottom step, the enormous stone doors responding to the magic of his staff. The enormous crystal flared with light. Mobius strode forward as the doors opened and walked into the room.
Like the great Cathedral in Avernus, this chamber was much older than the building above it. Mobius was the only one aware of its existence, as it should be. The Time Streamer smirked at the thought of what the Sarafan would say, had they been aware of the Unholy chapel beneath their feet. The room was dedicated to demon Hash'ak'gik, known by many as the Unspoken.
The Guardian of Time looked about with his seemingly blind eyes, once again marveling at the gory beauty of the room. It resembled one of the famed Blood Fountains of Nosgoth, but on a much grander scale. Reddish-black liquid spouted from the horned skulls of demons, the smell of blood engulfed any who entered.
Throughout the room, there was an overwhelming sense of power; the feeling of several beings hovering in the thick-smelling air. Most of them seemed dormant, benign, but the sheer power of the spirits was far more than a normal human could stand. Mobius admitted that he himself was awed at the almost physical weight the entities added to the atmosphere. He chuckled once again at the fact that Mortanius had never sensed them.
The blood was enough to drive a vampire insane with hunger, and the spirits- enough to drive a human insane with fear.
Stone sculptures of Hylden lined the walls like enormous, demon-like gargoyles. Their muscled bodies were visible from the waist up, legs melding with the wall. The curved bat's wings that identified their race were unfolded, but not at their full extension. The sculptures touched at the outer curve of their wings and the points of their taloned fingers. The winged demons all stared down at him, fanged grins stretching their faces, partially hidden by the horns that curled before their cheeks. Mobius peered at them through narrowed eyes, his lips pressed together in a triumphant sneer.
The Time Streamer circled the enormous fountain, heading for the sculpture in the center of the far wall. The tips of its wings were extended straight up, to their fullest length, the face and arms turned towards the ceiling as if entreating help from the heavens. This sculpture's eyes were closed, the face pained. The sense of awareness seemed to collect around this stone figure.
Mobius stood before it, and smiled. He planted his staff in a small hole worn in the crack between the floor stones. The gesture felt like tradition by now. "I have something that will interest you." Mobius took a box from the inside of his robes and held it out in front of the carving. He waited. Then he jumped slightly, seeming to remember something. "Oh! Silly me," he said, mockingly. "You cannot open it yourself, now can you?" he asked, and opened the box towards the sculpture.
"Recognize this?" he murmured. A sound resonated from the walls of the room; something that was very similar to a started gasp made by several overlapping voices. "Ah, I shall take that as a yes. So sad," he mused, leering up at the sculpture, "Janos was the last of his kind, after all."
The walls seemed to tremble in anger. Mobius' leer only grew more pronounced. "Oh, poor child. Poor, self-sacrificing child. To have given your life for nothing at all," the Time Streamer shook his head sadly. "Do you know; I think that is the most amusing thing I have ever heard." He smirked.
:You have not won yet, Mobius.: A slight veil of dust fell from the carvings as the amalgam of voices echoed from the walls. :The heart still beats.:
"Did I not tell you?" he asked, pleased that he had angered the presence enough to speak to him. "The Reaver Guardian's successor appeared recently." Mobius gave a smile that was laced with venom. "He was there for Janos' execution," he hissed. "The poor thing was so broken up about it that he vowed to return his mentor's heart." The Time Streamer's voice softened, he continued in a mockingly soothing tone. "And I shall do everything in my power to help him."
The weight of despair lay upon my shoulders, suffocating in its intensity. So I was to become the thing I abhorred the most. A tool. An inanimate object. Powerless to effect change in my environment. My purpose determined by my wielder. I seethed with ire as I realized how little would change from my current existence to the next. I would become the true Soul Reaver. Stripped of mind and will, I would be fated to serve my foes in this circle of being... forever.
Raziel knelt in the center of the Sarafan Chapel, in the exact spot he had fallen after fading into the Spectral Realm. Immersed in his despair, he was oblivious to the silent presence that hovered nearby; confused after the violent separation with its physical body.
The spirit world was timeless. Raziel could kneel there forever if he chose to, and at the moment, it seemed like the best thing to do.
Mobius had used him, easily, delightedly, to kill Janos Audron. He had been used, manipulated, as easily as Kain would be, five centuries from now.
He was just like Kain. His father, maker, destroyer. They were the same.
A broken sound echoed through the stillness. It was repeated several times and the unnoticed watcher shivered in fear at the noise, as well as the source of it.
Raziel's cloven hands were clenched, his head bowed, and the sound gathered volume.
Laughter.
The Soul Reaver was laughing for the first time in centuries, and he did not sound quite sane.
Kain cursed as Raziel faded into the Spectral Realm. Endless possibilities lay open to them now, and yet- Mobius knew every move they could make, and every move to counter them.
The new memories-
Janos Audron leaned back in his chair at one side of Vorador's dining table, a weary pair of eyes, glowing at the fledgling Kain from the shadows. Vorador prattled on about his conquest of the Circle and his defeat of the Sarafan warrior Malek. Kain slowly tuned out the tedious story, but during his effort to seem as if he were paying attention, his eyes kept straying to Janos. The winged being seemed tired, strained, somewhat peaceful- and yet, Kain could feel something around the Ancient. A feeling of... impurity. He did not understand what caused it.
While Vorador seemed to have been the more violent and bloody-minded of the two, the Ancient Vampire felt clean, whole. His essence was of blood and anger, and something else, something that was the very heart of magic- the pure energy of the world. Kain ignored the Vampire's words and instead focused on the intense, moving power of his life force. Somehow, Kain felt that Vorador's essence was made of light, or fire- two of the foremost things that were the bane of their kind.
It was absurd, but the young vampire knew no other explanation. Vorador was an absolute, something that was made up of truths. The world was a violent, exploitative thing that could also be quiescent and evenhanded, and so was the creature that sat before him now.
The vampire's inner being was a thing that burned; that purified. It flowed through him. It connected him to the world, denying forever the idea that Vampires were an abomination, something unnatural.
Janos- was different. While he once, perhaps, been made of similar stuff -and he had to have been, as he was Vorador's maker- he was tarnished. The energy that animated him was laced with something else. A corruptive agent; something living within him that was not part of Janos' original being.
That something reached out to Kain, recognizing him as like to itself.
Kain surged up from his throne- staring in rage at the being before him.
It looked vaguely vampiric, but horribly wrong. Flesh-covered horns curled from each side of the creature's head. They stemmed from the back of the skull, curving around the head to end in wicked points before its cheeks. In every other respect, it resembled Kain himself, and what his Lieutenants had been at the end of their first Millennia. In every other respect, but one. The creature had wings.
"A Razielim," Kain murmured through clenched teeth.
It smiled. "Perhaps I was, quite a long time ago. But we prefer a new -or rather old- name now." A forked, black tongue flicked out over sharp fangs. "I am Adojan, of the Hylden." The creature searched Kain's face for a hint of surprise and found none. Its smile grew. "You were expecting me. You know what I plan to do."
Kain nodded once in response. "How did you escape the Purge?" he asked, honestly curious.
"The Reaver Guardian saved me," it smirked. Kain looked to the shadows and watched Janos pace forward to stand beside the creature.
Kain had known this was to be. Even as he ordered the destruction of Raziel's clan, he knew there would be one to escape and create more of its kind. What he didn't understand was-
"Why, Janos?"
The Ancient flinched. His shoulders were hunched, his wings hanging limply from his back. His posture was that of one broken, defeated.
"I was tainted from the moment of my rebirth, Kain," the winged one murmured. "After death, the Unspoken and his minions met me in the Spectral Realm. Raziel brought me back with their talons embedded in my soul."
"A pleasant way to reclaim the world, don't you think? Riding in on the... wings," Adojan smirked, "of one sworn to destroy us? After all, Kain, one must keep his friends close," the creature said mockingly, "and his enemies, even closer.
"He had no choice but to help us. We unerringly corrupt those that we touch, and those we have touched, corrupt everything they touch."
Kain's lip curled in rage and he remembered Mortanius; how the Guardian's body had expanded as the Demon Hash'ak'gik exploded from within.
Adojan smiled, following Kain's line of thought. "You carry our taint, Vampire God of Nosgoth." He gave a mocking bow. "We thank you for populating the world with our brethren-"
Kain knew Raziel would revive Janos. If anything, Kain's firstborn was determined- and his act would be more detrimental to the fate of the world than any choice Kain had made in his time. Raziel would find the heart, return it to its former owner, and begin a chain of events that would eventually destroy Nosgoth.
Kain paced across the room. With no more than a sneer and a passing glance for the body of the Sarafan Inquisitor, he snatched up the Reaver blade and left the room. He had to find the heart before Raziel, and keep him from using it to revive the last of the Ancients.
Kain strode down the hall, pausing only to blast a few Sarafan guards from his path. Nearing the exit, he heard the sounds of a struggle. Kain turned a corner and saw Vorador, and a regimen of Sarafan Knights preventing him from teleporting out of the Stronghold. Kain smiled in anticipation of a fight and strode forward.
One of the Knights caught sight of him. "Another one! Surely this vampire is the murderer of the Generals!"
Kain laughed. "Thank a creature with blue skin and shredded wings for the death of your greatest fighters. I have killed enough that I need not take credit for another's victories." Vorador was staring at him with narrowed eyes, which widened as he noticed the Reaver, clasped in Kain's hand. "May I join you?" he asked cordially.
The green-skinned vampire looked a Kain for a moment, then gave a faint smile and nodded once.
"The vampires are gone!" A magically amplified voice shouted from the watchtower. "They have disappeared!"
"Secure the perimeter. Make certain none remain within the Stronghold," Mortanius ordered. The Sarafan rushed off to do his bidding, leaving the Pillar of Death alone in the corridor. He reflected briefly on the irony of the word. Their hold couldn't be that strong, or the vampires would not have penetrated their defenses.
Mortanius clenched one bone-white hand, turned and strode into the room behind him.
Malek, the Commander of the Sarafan and Pillar of Conflict knelt beside the basin in the center, head in his hands, his helmet and long-bladed spear on the floor before him.
Mortanius took in the sight of his murdered brethren, lying where they had fallen on the floor, and Mobius, the only other survivor of the circle. The Pillar of Time stood a few steps away, sorrow written on his lined face.
The Pillar of Death twisted a thin-fingered hand in Malek's hair and pulled, forcing the Guardian to look him in the face.
"Where were you?" he hissed. Malek's eyes were tortured, but still as proud as ever.
"Protecting the castle from a threat, Lord Mortanius," he replied. "Lord Mobius led me to an intruder and bade me keep the creature from leaving the room."
Mortanius turned his burning gaze on Mobius, who was kneeling over one of their fallen comrades. A lifeless hand was clasped in his, tears coursed down his cheeks. At Malek's words, the Time Streamer looked up with a shocked expression on his face.
"This is no time for your excuses, Malek," Mobius whispered, astonished. Malek turned his head slightly, looking at Mobius with a bewildered expression on his face. The Pillar of Time stood with the aid of his staff and leaned heavily upon it, seeming to need the support. He gazed at them with a wounded look on his face. Mortanius' eyes narrowed in suspicion.
"My Lord-" Malek began.
"What did this 'creature' look like, Malek?" Mortanius interrupted, still focused on Mobius.
"My Lord, it was something like a cross between a demon and a vampire. Blue flesh, no skin... Lord, the thing had no entrails. It seemed to be a creature with only muscle stretched across bone. There were flaps of skin upon its back," Malek paused in thought for a moment, trying to remember more. Mortanius removed his hand from the Sarafan's dark hair and walked slowly towards Mobius.
"The creature wore a flap of cloth around the lower half of its face... it- it had cloven hands, like one of the older vampires. From what Raziel-" Malek paused, his voice breaking slightly. He cleared his throat and continued. "Raziel and the others told me it vaguely resembled the Vampire Janos Audron."
"Malek," Mortanius murmured, coming to a stop before the Time Streamer, "six of the Pillars have fallen today. We also lost six of our best warriors. Part of the blame for this lies on your shoulders... and part of it on ours.
"Nevertheless," Mortanius said, his gaze locked with Mobius', "something must be done to ensure that our losses stop here."
"As I live, Lord Mortanius, no other Guardian will fall," the Pillar of Conflict vowed.
"I will hold you to those words, Malek of the Sarafan," Mortanius said ominously. "Now leave us." Mortanius heard the steely chink of chain mail tapping against armor as the Warrior Priest rose from the stone floor. He bowed, and taking up his helm and spear, departed, shutting the door behind him.
"Are you quite finished?" Mortanius' deep voice resonated throughout the room.
Mobius' injured expression disappeared. The Sorcerer straightened and loosened his grip on the staff. His eyes were now completely dry. "Indeed."
"Malek is not possessed of enough imagination to lie, Mobius," he said in a soft, intent voice. "And I tasted un-life in four separate places, all in the same space of time this day. One of those was very familiar, as our troops have been killing the rats from his swamp for years now.
"Vorador killed six of our brethren," Mortanius said, his jaw tightening. "For hundreds of years he has ventured no father than the walls of his Mansion, and this day he comes into the very seat of our power." The Pillar of Death waved a hand in the direction of their fallen comrades. "Why did you not warn them that the Sarafan were planning to murder Janos Audron?"
"Murder, Mortanius?" Mobius asked mildly. "How can one murder something that is already dead?"
Mortanius chuckled; the sound of old bones grinding together. "Murder is murder, Mobius, regardless of what dies."
"Why did you not warn them?" Mobius asked reasonably. "You must have sensed the Vampire Audron's death, and Vorador stirring."
The Pillar of Death chuckled again. "Need we keep shifting the blame, Mobius? We both know who is at fault here."
Mobius chuckled in response. "You don't trust me, Mortanius. You never have," he said mildly. "But you will not kill me. You cannot. Such an act would leave you and Malek to fend off the Vampires. That scenario, as amusing as I may find it, would end in the death of the Circle...as well as Nosgoth." Mobius smiled. "Neither of us want that."
Mortanius was a statue; his eye sockets the only evidence of his emotions as they burned in impotent fury. Mobius only smiled at him, waiting. The Time Streamer was right, and knew he was right.
"Why did you kill them, Mobius?"
The injured look was back. "I did not kill them."
"You could not have been more involved in their deaths had you held the sword yourself," he hissed. Mortanius turned away slowly and paced across the room. He stared emotionlessly down at the bodies as he went. Their souls had long since fled, finding their pathways to the realms beyond.
"We need a safeguard, Mortanius," the Time Streamer murmured. "As you said- we have lost twelve of our most powerful this day. We need some form of protection until the new Guardians are found."
"What were the other beings, Mobius?" the Pillar of Death asked, ignoring his fellow Sorcerer's words for the moment. His eyes focused on the pale skin of the fallen Pillar of States. He stared at her body without seeing it, noticing only the way the light shone on her auburn hair. "I sensed my own power within one of them. And I have known the soul of the second. Of the third... I cannot find an explanation."
"In the future, you will find reason to use your powers of resurrection, Mortanius. That was the familiar power you felt."
"I, create a vampire?" he murmured. The thought was absurd, and yet- it made more sense than anything he had considered thus far. "What of the others? At one time I felt three souls in the space of a single room, all different, yet- much too similar. Then I looked in the Ouroborous room and saw a body, so I know the soul that haunts the Sarafan chapel." Mortanius pondered this, wondering why the Sarafan Inquisitor was the only soul to linger while the others had passed beyond. "The question I have, Mobius- is why are they still there?"
Mobius looked sharply up at him. "They?"
"I have been the Guardian of the Pillar of Death for a very long time, Mobius. I have never experienced this phenomenon. I would say that the same soul had been split into three separate parts- yet each one is of a different evolution."
Mobius' smiled malevolently and headed for the door. "Come, my friend. Follow me and all will be explained."
==================================
Questions? Comments? Screams for more? Well Review and tell me all about it! ^_^