Chapter Seven
Kain could say nothing…he was, for the first time in his life, too shocked to speak.
"We never met." Maddrell reassure him. "I was barely a fledgling when my sire went to confront you with his new gift."
"How……?" Kain managed to force a single word out.
"I was no fool, I knew from what I had heard of you that you would not be able to tolerate Raziel's surpassing your abilities and I knew that you would not stand for his children acquiring the same gifts that you did not possess, so I left. I tried to persuade others to join me and I gave them my reasons but they just laughed and told me that I was paranoid. I left Nosgoth entirely and journeyed into the lands beyond, where your influence did not reach. I was already on my way before you even ordered the cull. I later heard through tradesmen of the foul genocide you committed against my siblings. To this day I can clearly recall the moment that I was told…how sick I felt inside."
Kain's thoughts finally cleared; it did not matter in the least that this vampire had survived the Razielim cull, it was a surprise for sure but not truly important and it did not affect anything. It was only a minor mystery.
"How is it that you can have survived all these years yet have evolved so little, and why is it that it seems you are still the only Razielim left, why have you not sired your own clan and continued the blood heritage?" he had to admit that he was intrigued…and slightly worried. Khila was petrified. Every now and again Kain would hear her whisper words along the lines of 'the sixth Vetus!' by his left ear.
"You ask too many questions." Maddrell sneered. "I should kill you for what you have done, however; I am curious as well and I want to know by what means you were able to return to this still dying world so long after your execution."
"That is something that I cannot and will not discuss."
"Well, in that case; why are you here and what do you want? Nosgoth no longer belongs to you. The cities are the property of the Hylden and the Wild Lands are where the Vetus vampires do what we can to survive. You, Kain, belong only where the damned spirits roam." He began to saunter towards his grandsire and former lord.
Khila rushed forwards and stood between the two of them. "Please don't kill each other!" she begged.
"You are very forward for a pet." Maddrell crossed his arms, annoyed that she was in his way. She wouldn't be much of a challenge to remove from his path but it would just be embarrassing; a Vetus vampire bullying a pathetic kitten from the big city.
"Don't you dare call me 'pet' again." she stamped her foot like a spoilt child. "My name is Khila."
Maddrell sniffed. "I promise nothing, Kitten, now step aside or you'll find yourself getting hurt."
Khila continued to stand her ground. "No. I don't know what has occurred between you and Kain but if it happened as long ago as it sounds then surely it is pointless to argue over it now. Please, sir, we just wish to pass through here."
He gave her a sideways look. "Pass through to where? Beyond the Wild Lands there are simply more cities. Why leave one hell just to go to another?"
Kain came up as close to Maddrell as he could get without treading on Khila. "We are not going to another city. We are here to use the abandoned pipelines to gain access to the drained pool in the grounds of Caucahn's castle. From there I will reach and destroy him and I shall regain Nosgoth piece by piece."
"If Caucahn is still alive then how do you have the Soul Reaver?"
"I told you before, Maddrell, I will not discuss such things, just know that Nosgoth still is and always shall be mine."
"Neither Nosgoth nor the vampires need or want you, Kain." Maddrell pushed Khila aside and jabbed a claw into Kain's chest. "You couldn't defeat the Hylden before so what makes you think that you can beat them now that they are stronger than they have ever been?"
Kain's claws curled even tighter around the Reaver, if it had been any normal sword the handle would have broken from the pressure. "I care not how strong they are nor how vast their armies may be for they will fall all the same once their leader is dead and I reform the Clans." Already there were new strategies and plans storming in his thoughts.
"I cannot let you do that, Kain. There are no 'Clans', just the six species of Vetus vampires; the Wild ones. We have all worked so hard to gain all that we have; pretending to be nothing more than mindless, dumb animals so that we are no longer threats and are in turn ignored unless we are caught in the cities. It is the only way for us to live unless we are pets. I will not have you ruin what peace we have achieved. We do not need you."
"I warn you now, Maddrell, no one shall stand against me."
"And what if the 'Clans' reject you? What then? Perhaps they will be pleased you have returned but they will never again fly the flag of an army."
"We shall see." The tension between them was unbearable.
Kain was vaguely aware of someone trying to pull him away; Khila had linked arms with him again. "Let's just go, eh? I think I can remember the way now."
He diligently ignored her and snarled at Maddrell. "Dare you challenge me?"
Maddrell reached behind him and drew a pair of ornate handled serrated dirks and held them up defensively. How he had managed to hide them when he wore such scant clothing was mystery. "If a challenge is what you wish to call it then yes; I do." he took a short jump back and made a fighting stance, flaring out his wings to emphasise his presence.
Kain shook Khila off and adopted his own familiar stance. "I'll be sure to give you a descent burial."
Khila stood in the middle again. "Kain, this isn't helping. Can't you settle this some other time? Please can we just leave? I don't think the pipeline is very far from here.
Kain ignored her utterly, almost looking straight through her. "Do you honestly think that you have even the smallest hope of defeating me?" he growled at Maddrell.
"Yes." Maddrell replied with an evil little smile on his lips. "You may bear the Soul Reaver, Kain, but a weapon is only as good as the man that wields it. Every creature has a weakness; even you."
"Are you willing to risk your life to test your theory?"
Khila could feel the aggression practically radiating from each of them and she knew that if she did not do something fast they would slaughter one another right there in front of her. Her eyes snapped from Kain to Maddrell and back again and then she resorted to the only thing she could think of to catch their full attention; she screamed.
Both Kain and Maddrell dropped their respective weaponry and clamped their claws firmly over their ears; Khila's scream was of a pitch so high and loud it was agonizing. She had screamed a lot in her lifetime and had honed her voice until it could damage the hearing of those who had the misfortune to listen to it. Her scream had been the only way for her to get back at her torturers and tormentors.
By the time her lungs were empty of air and her scream had finished reverberating around the canyon walls both of the affected vampires were on their knees in pain. Khila gasped a few breaths and then waited for them to get back up again.
"Have you two quite finished now?" she asked politely, if not breathlessly.
"Pardon?" Kain grunted loudly, temporarily deafened, and retrieved the Reaver from where he had dropped it.
Maddrell, who was somewhat dazed and who had briefly lost all sense of balance, leaned heavily on the cliff wall to keep upright with eyes wide in shock.
Kain looked at Khila, he was somewhat impressed…although he wished his ears would stop ringing.
He was about to speak when she interrupted him before he could even start. "You two can shout at each other until you are blue in the face and fight until there is blood on the floor but at the end of the day nothing will have changed and nothing will have been solved."
Maddrell finally composed himself. "Kitten, you know nothing of this vile, depraved old beast." A claw was thrust rudely in Kain's direction. If it had been close enough it would have been bitten clean off.
"Now see here," Khila said, her voice rising, "Kain has been nothing less than cordial to me, in fact, he has been kinder than any man, woman or creature I have ever known. Not even my original mother cared enough to protect me as he has, when he barely knows my name. I will not allow you to speak to him in such a manner. Mind. Your. Tongue." The last three words were slow and deliberate and were of a tone Kain had not before heard from her. Was it anger?
Maddrell made a grunt best written as "Hrumf." And crossed his arms. After a moment of intense mumbling he decided it would be better if he attempted to rescue his dignity. "Don't take that tone with me, Kitten. I am many millennia your elder."
"So what?" she said.
"Ah…" he had to stop there because he didn't actually have an answer. "I could really learn to dislike you."
"So does this make me a victim of guilt by association? I favour Kain so I must too be your enemy for no decent reason?"
"I didn't say that!"
"It's amazing what you can say without speaking."
Kain pushed past Maddrell. "However fascinating this encounter may be I really must be going now. Khila?"
"Oh…coming!" she ran on after him, pausing briefly to turn and poke her tongue out at Maddrell.
"You know, you are going entirely the wrong way." Maddrell sighed.
"We are?" Khila asked. "I swear this is the right way."
"Yes, it is but it is also the long and dangerous way. Come with me and I'll take you to the Refuge. From there you can get to the pipe line without any Hylden patrols noticing you."
"The Refuge?" Kain questioned.
"The Refuge is exactly what it sounds to be; a place where we Vetus can be safe." Maddrell picked up his dirks, hid them away and began to walk.
Khila waited for Kain to follow before she did.
"So, Maddrell, how are the clans?" Kain asked as Khila skipped on ahead and stopped every so often to make sure she was still going in the correct direction.
"Surviving." Maddrell told him. "That's just about it."
"How have they evolved since my departure?"
"A lot. You would probably be able to recognise who belongs to what clan but they have pretty much degenerated since last you saw them. They seem to be devolving. Their forms grow worse with every mutation. The Turelim's Gifts are beginning to destroy their own minds while their bodies weaken due to them not needing to use their muscles any more; such is their telepathic and telekinetic ability now. The Dumahim are fast outgrowing the Refuge. They are the opposite of what the Turelim are now; their bodies grow larger and stronger while their minds fade. The Rahabim can no longer leave the water and are burned by even the weakest forms of light…even the glow from a candle can cause their skin to blister. The Zephonim become more like arachnids every change. Now they hardly ever leave the walls and their bodies barely resemble vampires at all. Eight legs, eight eyes, mandibles…they are just giant bugs now. And as for the Melchahim…well…there is only one left, Darent, and he is almost dead now. Darent can hardly be called a person any longer. He is just a mass of flesh and blood. His bones cannot support his weight and now he spreads across the floor of his chamber, nothing more than a loose sac of constantly rotting flesh and fluids. You can just about define his head and limbs, not that he can speak, see or move. We feed him and bring him hides to keep him alive but I doubt he can hold on much longer, the poor bastard."
"Why have you not evolved as far as others?"
"Because I did not let myself." The last Razielim replied. "Whilst I was outside of Nosgoth I had a chance encounter with a nomadic shaman who in return for me sparing his life taught me a magic technique that allows me to prevent myself from entering the state of change."
"Why would you want to do that?"
"I heard word of what was becoming of your precious sons and I didn't want to end up that way; I gave my solemn oath that I would not end up that way. I allowed myself one last evolution, bringing me to the form I have now and then I never changed again; and I never will. Every time I stop myself developing I can feel what would have happened and I am glad that I stopped when I did. In my minds eye I can see clearly the monster that I would have changed into."
"What would happen if you allowed yourself to enter the state of change again?" Khila asked out of curiosity. She had not experienced a change herself. She had fallen back a few steps to hear what they were talking about.
"I fear I would acquire all of my missing transformations at once." He told her and shuddered at the thought.
Khila made a face and then skipped off again, humming and smiling.
"So where did you find her? You do realise that she is Caucahn's prize pet." Maddrell asked Kain as Khila went ahead.
"You know her?"." Kain commented.
"No but…well, Caucahn wasn't the only one to see the resemblance between you and her. I have kept an eye on her whenever I could. I feel so sorry for that poor girl, having to look in the mirror and see the ghost of your face in her own."
"I don't like you."
"Oh, don't worry; the feeling is mutual. So, why did you help her? You cannot have felt sorry for her; pity is not something that shrivelled, rotting organ in your chest is capable of. Did you expect her to give you a little something in return?"
"Yes I did actually; information." He was genuinely insulted by the implications of Maddrell's question. "What do you take me for?"
"An evil, twisted and self centred murdering psychopath who cares only for his own desires and satisfaction."
Such a statement should have sparked a battle of epic proportions between them, however, Khila interrupted with yet another of her innocent little statements that were carefully placed to keep the two of them away from each others throats. "Is it just me or did we already go through this canyon? I swear I've seen that gnarly old stump of a tree before."
"Everything looks the same here." Maddrell explained. "If you took away the Hylden constructs you would be left with rock and desert…well, mainly rock and desert. There is water in places, rivers and the like, but hardly anything will actually grow properly any more. The Hylden cultivate plants and trees in special gardens for air and crops but out here patches of greenery are few and far between. You're lucky to find scrub."
"Maddrell, I must ask you something." A thought had just occurred to Kain.
"What?" Maddrell snapped in reply.
"What became of the Abyss?" He had finally worked out what it was that had been missing from his view of the city before he had taken to his bat form; there was no gaping open pool of swirling madness.
"The Abyss…no longer exists. The waterfalls that fed it were diverted so that it drained; it was then covered over and built on. It's a great big open rock mouth under the city. Empty and dry. I was wondering how long it would take for you to ask about it, you were always so fond of it…so fond of throwing people into it, you selfish, arrogant, jealous, heartless BASTARD!"
Maddrell launched himself at Kain who dodged aside and let the enraged Razielim careen into the canyon wall.
Khila came running back; throwing herself in between the two of them again as they both made to strike each other down. Once again putting herself in harms way to preserve a kind of peace between them.
Thankfully they were both able to turn aside their attacks before they killed her.
She peered out between her claws. "Can't you just forget about it…you're argument is surly too old to mean anything any more."
"You don't know what he did!" Maddrell screeched. "I want to help you, I don't want vampires as pets any more than you do but I just cannot bring myself to even be near that-that sick and twisted creature, that thing that has the gall to call itself a sentient being."
"Oh just stop it! No wonder you and the Vetus are barely surviving; how can you expect to build a future when you can't let go of the past?!"
"Let go of the past…" his voice suddenly grew quiet. "I wish I could, Kitten, but that little bit of past has shaped my entire life. That monster has killed every member of my race; my sire, my brothers, my sisters….all of them. How can you tell me to forget that?" his eyes seemed dark, his expression almost sad.
"Oh, I-I didn't mean to upset you. I'm sorry."
"I'm not upset."
"If you say so." Kain grunted.
"Oh drop dead!"
"Pah! I did that a long time ago."
"Well why can't you stay dead for once?!"
Khila sighed and stepped between them again. "How many times are you two going to argue?" she asked.
"I don't know." Maddrell said, glaring at Kain over her shoulder. "Why don't you start counting?"
"Can't you just show us to the pipe like you said you would?"
"Maybe. I may just change my mind."
"Please, Maddrell." Her hands were behind her back, shoulders raised and one foot claw was marking the ground in a very childlike gesture. She even had faun eyes. "Please, just show us the way…we'll never bother you again. Never ever."
"Oh, don't look at me like that." Maddrell complained. "Stop trying to look cute; you're succeeding."
She smiled. "Please."
"Alright, alright, just stop using those eyes." he waved one hand as though attempting to wave her expression away.
The rest of the journey as conducted mainly in bleak silence broken only by Khila's whistling and humming.
Maddrell strode along ahead and Kain trailed behind with Khila between them as a shield of sorts.
The quiet gave Kain time to think, yet again.
How Nosgoth had changed; not even the Abyss had survived the Hylden's cities. The only thing left from the past was Maddrell and Kain had never known or heard of him. He knew that Maddrell had every reason to despise him and he could accept that but he just couldn't help but return the anger. Maddrell didn't know why Kain had done what he did and nor would he ever be able to understand even if he was told. The Razielim's eyes and thoughts were clouded and twisted with a bitterness and resentment and that would never lift.
No one could understand.
He was suddenly aware that Khila was walking beside him. "You're thinking again, aren't you?" she said. "If I thought that much I would end up with a terrible migraine."
"Well I have had years of practice." He told her.
"Is that a hint of a joke I hear oh heartless one?"
"You'll have to decide for yourself."
Her smile faded a little. "Kain, is it true what Maddrell and the books all say? Did you really order the destruction of an entire race of vampires?"
"Apart from Maddrell, yes. I'll not lie."
"But why? What did they do? I'm sure you must have had good reason but I just can't understand…"
"I cannot explain it, Khila. Just accept the fact that my actions were for the greater good no matter how evil they seemed. It wasn't out of jealousy regardless of how it appeared."
"So, they hadn't done anything wrong at all? They were just some kind of sacrifice?"
"You can think of it that way, I suppose. It isn't something that I'm proud of but neither am I ashamed; I did what I had to do."
"Well I hope it was worth it."
I thought it was…but now…now does it mean anything at all?
"I take it by your lack of reply that things did not quite work out as planned."
"Everything was fine until…"
"Until what?"
"Until I ended up here. But it seems that I shan't be getting back so nothing has really made a blind bit of difference. You may as well for get the subject."
"Hint taken."
Maddrell led them through and out of the canyon, up onto a rocky overhang, the edge of which that would reveal a trail leading down the cliff face; a trail that was barely visible even though it was astoundingly large. It could only really be found if you knew where it was.
The cliff overlooked a great deal of the Wild Lands and though the ground was parched and dark, compared to the city it was something quite fine. Much of the Wild Lands had been transformed by time and hand into glittering lakes, shining with the light of the moon. The lakes and connecting rivers had been crafted by Hylden as a means of once more keeping the Vetus out of the way but instead it had provided more space for the Rahabim who now happily inhabited them. The surface of the waters were briefly broken every so often by something sliding through the seemingly empty liquid sapphires.
Khila gaped. "I've never seen so much space before…" she said in wonder.
"I'd expect nothing less from a city pet." Maddrell sighed. "Now hurry up please. This way."
In the face of the cliff, hidden by the overhang and by clinging scrub plants and grasses, was the wide open mouth of what Maddrell called the Refuge; a simple but enormous complex of tunnels and caverns within the ground.
To be continued……Author's Note – Woohoo! This seems to be going well. It's good to know you still think it's worth reviewing. Anyway, replies!
Smoke –A bit about Khila will be revealed in the next chapter.I'm glad you spotted the development names, as I really wasn't sure if anyone would get it. Hmm…back burner…I'm working on my Hellsing fic at the moment too, but as for LoK I had an idea for a angsty one shot ficlet and a humour multi-chapter but on reflection the former would just take too long to get the emotion in and the latter is of a type that's already been done to death, so I doubt either will happen. In BtE you'll only see Maddrell, but maybe there are others somewhere, y'never know.
Varyssa – Romantic involvement, eh, are you hoping for any? Think it should happen? I've never done romance before, so I hadn't really planned for it...spose I could try… That aside, me's happy you liked the shadow and yes Mr. Rag Man is our beloved Raziel.
Windra – Glad to have you on board, welcome to my imagination. You should definitely play the Blood Omens. Yup; Maddrell is a survivor and you'll be seeing quite a bit more of him over the next couple of chapters or so.
Lunatic Pandora 1 – Or maybe older. He was sired before Raz's execution and has lived through the clan's destruction, Kain's empire and the Hylden empire to that day. I can't actually pin an age on him right now…maybe I aught to try.
AllNightDreamer – Yay! You came back! Your reviews really help as they give me some useful constructive criticism as well as what bits I'm getting right. I know I brought in Maddrell too soon but I was honestly out of ideas for that part. It looks bad to me too…I'll fix it some day. Any ideas for it are appreciated, as I'm still clueless. Oooh! If/when you draw Maddrell please please please can you find a way to show me, I would love to see. (I tried once but my drawing is crap, he's missing his right foot and right wing...i drew him from the side...and looks too cute.)
Manus Dei – Heh, I never intended for it to be humorous but the comic comments just slip in there. As for arguments, I can have some fun with those two (sorry 'bout lack of Raz). I'm not sure, however, how long I'll be able to keep Maddrell in the foreground (as it were) because the more characters I have together the harder I find my stories are to write. I get confused after about three so I always keep it to a bare minimum P.S – I still have plans for Raz, so stay tuned.
Phew, that was long but I think I got everything covered. Thank you again and bye for now! I'll try to make the next update sooner.