"The Sarafan are nothing but vile bastards," Sarah spat miserably.
"What they did to you was inexcusable, child, but you must not continue to let this destroy your life," Janos consoled.
"They would have destroyed you," Sarah said. "No one deserves their whim."
"Are you a seer?" Janos questioned.
Sarah spoke hesitantly. "I don't have any mystic powers, but I have seen things happen. The Sarafan order won't be around much longer."
Still on the ledge, Kain turned to Raziel and murmured, "Seeing you may cause her to become inhibited again. Stay here for a moment." Kain then dropped off the ledge and silently landed in the courtyard.
Sarah gave a small gasp as Kain approached.
"You shouldn't have sent her to confront the body of her attacker alone," Janos admonished Kain.
Kain paused a moment in thought. It was not in his nature to be kind or emotionally supportive; he felt that his presence would not have done Sarah any good. Kain did not voice his opinion; it was also not in his nature to explain himself.
Kain decided that perhaps it was in Sarah's best interests if he ignored her for the moment. "Janos, I seek your counsel."
The feathered vampire slowly rose from his bench. "I will help you in any way I can."
"What do you know about my purpose?" Kain asked.
"The pillars must not remain under human guardianship," Janos said. "In the past, we were able to find the successors of our fallen guardians and pass our bloodline to them. However, they rebelled and claimed the pillars for themselves. You must return the pillars to the vampires before the humans allow the binding to fail."
Kain shifted his weight pensively. "If it were only that simple."
Janos frowned at Kain in confusion. He spoke hesitantly, "Go to the Oracle. I do not know the entirety of the prophecy, but I do know that only the Scion would have the means to unseal the chamber. There must be a reason."
Kain sneered slightly at the mention of an oracle, but asked calmly, "Where should I look?"
"It is in the Citadel." Janos said, a distant look on his face. "I would take you there, but there are wards around it that even I cannot breach."
"Then how do I find it?" Kain asked, an edge of irritation creeping into his voice.
"I do not know," Janos sighed.
"The answers are plain if you know where to look." Sarah sat stonily on the bench where Janos had left her. "Go west of the Pillars."
Kain slowly strode towards Sarah, intrigued that she would speak without being spoken to first.
"I see you have found a fragment of the Balance Emblem. This will be even further use to you- if you can find the other three," Sarah quoted mindlessly.
Kain placed one talon under her chin so that he could look into Sarah's eyes, but they rolled back in her head in a reaction the stress of being touched with razor-sharp vampire claws.
"You will speak," Kain commanded before withdrawing his talon. "Tell me about the Emblem."
Sarah shuddered as she realized that Kain's patience was growing thin, but she managed to put her thoughts into words. "You need the entire artifact to open the chamber, but the fragment you need to find the Citadel is not far from the pillars."
Kain was about to ask about the other fragments, but Raziel chose that moment to leap down from the ledge. Sarah whimpered as she heard Raziel's hoofs scuff on the flagstones of the courtyard. An uncomfortable silence settled, punctuated only by the steady splash of water into the churning pool at the center of the room.
"I think that you know far more than you should; it's time that you told us what you know," Raziel enunciated.
"This isn't helping," Kain scowled.
Janos sighed and said, "Sarah, you told me that you know what happens. Will you now help us to set things right?"
Sarah gazed at the enigmatic vampire. More tears flowed onto her streaked cheeks, but she nodded slowly. "He needs all the elements, but he won't have access to the fonts."
"Vorador had his house built over the entrance to the water shrine," Janos said. "The portal is in the fountain."
Raziel examined the pool. "Another puzzle, I suppose."
"I'm not sure why the seers insisted that the shrines be protected in this way," Janos said apologetically.
Once Raziel wandered off in an attempt to figure out how to get into the water shrine, Kain offered to escort Sarah back to her room.
"You won't be able to save him," Sarah told Kain as they slowly walked down the dark hallway.
"I refuse to believe that there is no other way," Kain insisted.
"I've thought about it- a lot," Sarah said, the words sounding like a shameful confession. "Even when I did care about what happened, I couldn't figure out how to change it."
Calimari! Istari, you did exactly what I wanted you to do. The dagger was a reward gift. (Smoke takes the dagger away and hands Istari a crossbow instead.) I'm not sure exactly what you're supposed to do with this, but it's a ranged weapon, meaning that you're not likely to be able to hurt yourself with it. Oooh, I know, you can use it to shoot me in the leg next time that I resort to boring vocabulary.
Varewulf! (glomp) Advice in any form, really.
Lunatic Pandora, that wisdom is about the only thing keeping her alive right now.
Varyssa, things have gotten worse. The sad part is that I can bear far more than this without harm.
(sigh) Who ever knew that when I created Sarah, I would turn into an angst-ridden approximation of her past? I'm really hoping that I'm not going to repeat her present.
Thanks everyone for reviewing that half-chapter. This chapter was the rest of it. If that made any sense...