Chapter 29

Kain

Directly east of the Pillars was the great southern lake, an expanse of water that separated the north planes from the rocky shores to the south. Due to lack of rainfall over the years however the lake had shrunk; peeling back over the land. It was now barley half of the length it had been and far less deep. On the southern shore of this lake the original Sarafan Order had constructed their fortress. I had seen this mighty construct at the height of its glory and admittedly it was a semi-impressive sight. Now, abandoned and ravaged by the weather it was nothing more than a ruin. The giant stone battlements had collapsed into the lake, the door that bared the entrance inside had long since rotted away and the receding waters had left their moat barren and dry.

The original Sarafan order had been more interested with the destruction of vampires rather than their overall suffering. So it could be argued that these Sarafan were more 'humane' than these new cruel and vicious scions. Yet even if this was so, the smell still reeked of death even after seven hundred years.

My bats came together in within the great hall of the stronghold and I beheld the state of their supposedly impenetrable fortress. The roof was missing, the metal portcullis' across the doors had rusted to near nothing and several of the colossal stone pillars that held the roof had crumbled to brick dust around me. One of the demon hunters who had tried to retake the ruin about a century or two before lay on the ground, his rotting remains sending a very potent smell into the air.

Glancing up I saw Raziel ahead of me, his transparent form projecting itself from inside the Reaver. He was waiting beside the metal gates had barred entry to the chapel at the far end of the hall. Despite the rust of the others, this gate had seemed to have barred the centuries well. But one solid kick was enough to shove them loose. Moebius statue stood before me, holding high in his hand Vorador's severed head. Despite the collapse of the fortress, this sickening sight was still standing. A testament to his near destruction of my species, standing for centuries so that all may know the days of the vampires were nearing an end. Growling in disgust I smashed a telekinetic pulse into the time streamers face. His head tore from the body and crumbled to the ground.

The stained glass windows lined the chapel had all been broken, the shattered glass lying scattered across the floor in various places. But the ruination of their place of worship was not my concern. What I was here for was lying at the far end of the chapel. When the beloved king William the Just had been killed before he could become the Nemesis, history was rewritten so that instead of cursing the name of William; the people of Nosgoth worshiped him as the saint who stood against Kain the Destroyer. And so they honoured him as best they could, entombing him here in the now considered holy residence of the Sarafan; his corpse on full view for Moebius' hunters to remind them of why they were fighting.

Because of William, even partly, my life had been one travesty after another. First he raped the land as the Nemesis and then he sparked the hatred of my kind as the 'Boy King.'

And what did the Seer want me to do? Revive the bastard.

I wasn't sure how long I stood over the casket looking down at the stone lid before me but by the time I became aware of it, the rain outside had ceased. Why should I? I found myself asking. Why should I bring back to life this man? Why did he deserve immortality after what he did, or would have done had I not stopped him? Hang the Seer and her promise of rewards; this was something I needed to know. Why did he deserve the gift of life again? How could I be sure he would stay William the Just, when with vampire blood pumping through his veins it was more than likely he would become the Nemesis again?

"Do we have a choice?" Raziel asked reading my thoughts telepathically, his projected form standing beside me. I shook my head slowly. No…even if I knew if William deserved the Dark Gift or not, the choice was not mine. I needed the Seer's Leviathan blood and she would only tell me where it was if I did as I was told.

Perhaps I was judging this man because of the actions of another. This boy was not the Nemesis and perhaps again, with history so re-written the temptations of power would not sway him. There was only one way to be sure.

With only solid shove, I pushed the lid of the casket. William had been decaying for over two hundred and fifty years so I was not expecting much of his body to be left save a skeleton. To my surprise I found his corpse quite well preserved. Wrapped from head to foot in bandages and seasoned with various minerals, his body had retained some of the flesh. Still, the smell flying up from the stone coffin was quite unbearable. Still, having suffered far worse I kept my head.

"The seventh son." I commented out load. True enough, if I raised William then that was what he would become. There is an emotional and spiritual bound a vampire shares with those he sires. Janos and Vorador were like father and son, and I was no different with the six I created from the Sarafan inquisitors. Even the permanently rotting Melchiah I loved as my offspring. Raising William would create the same bound. Was I prepared to have the Nemesis as my son? Well, there was only one way to find out.

Raising a vampire from the dead is perhaps more complicated than most humans believe. One does not snag any old soul from the underworld to animate the body. If it was that simple Vorador would have been able to sire thousands of vampires to overthrow the Order in the days of the Sarafan lord.

No… it had to be the right soul to the right body. My only hope was that William's spirit had not been absorbed and digested by the Elder God yet. Silently I placed my left hand upon the corpse's forehead and began calling to the underworld. This was an art similar to fishing. Channelling my call through the body, I made it appear to the underworld as if the corpse was calling for it's soul to return. Sort of similar to a tackle on the end of a fishing line, drawing the fish closer towards itself. This required immense concentration and a great deal of energy on my part which is why only Elder vampires have the power to do it.

After ten minutes of waiting, it finally happened. I felt a sudden shift and instantly I knew that a soul had entered the body. But was it the right one? If not I would have to start again.

"Who are you?" I asked of the body leaning close to it. The lips did not move but from within the throat a wisp of air passed up and then out through the dried mouth; a single word dragged out upon it.

"William." Instantly I threw a sealing spell around the body to prevent the soul from returning to the ether trapping it inside. Now I had time to work. The energy drain was beginning to tug at my muscles but I carried on anyway with Raziel watching me over my shoulder. Without a second thought I dragged my talons across my left wrist cutting the views, the blood leaking out in a thick river. Before any of it could be wasted I reached over and eased William's mouth open. Drop by drop my blood fell from me and past his waiting, dried up lips. Once I was sure I have given enough, my vampiric healing abilities kicked in and the self inflicted wound healed.

The raising process was almost complete. Only one thing left to do. The corpse had a soul and vampire blood within it. To make it all work, it needed energy to get going again. Laying a hand on its chest, I began pumping power; life force, magical and even spiritual into the body. Once I had given enough of my store I stepped back. There was nothing but silence, the corpse lying absolutely still.

"So that was how you raised the six of us." Raziel commented looking down at the body. "I never had the chance to evolve far enough to gain this ability." The clans had been created, largely, not by reviving dead bodies but rather by the infection of living humans. Even Raziel, as the eldest had not progressed far enough into their evolution to acquire the ability to resurrect corpses.

"Yes." I replied. "Although even if I have experience with this, I am not sure what to expect." The transparent ghoul looked up at me clearly a little puzzled.

"How so?" He asked.

"When I created you and your brothers I still had the corruption of Nupraptor within me. That passed on to the six of you and you all began devolving if you recall their monstrous forms. That is not the case here." I added, gesturing to the body. "I am purified of the mentalist's madness; as such I do not know what William will become given time." Raziel did not reply to that, he simply looked down at the inanimate corpse again. "So now we wait." With that I sat down against one of the few remain stone pillars and closed my eyes. I was not really sleeping, only rebuilding my energy reserve. Even creating one vampire could tax an ancient. That was why we were always hopelessly outnumbered by the humans.

"Something…" Raziel began but he was cut off by a loan moaning. Quickly I stood up and made my way over to the stone coffin, staring down at the body within. Far sooner than I had ever expected the centuries old corpse was beginning to twitch. Strange, Raziel and his brothers had taken longer. Barley a minute had passed this time. Slowly William's body began writhing, the crossed arms stretching out as the skin under the bandages began to heal. Hair sprouted from the decaying corpse's head, starched blond at first before changing to chestnut brown.

Muscles under the skin began twitching spasmodically, exercising themselves for the first time in centuries. The heart thumped so loudly I could hear it from here, the lungs on either side clearing out the dust and spiders webs with giant heaves that came out as strong moans. Once the skin had clarified, returning to it's normal pink the body heaved itself up into a sitting position.

The transformation had not yet completed itself. A hand reached up and tugged at the bandages covering its face and once more I found myself looking upon the face of Nemesis. with a sudden quickening, his skin adopted a greyer colour and his eyes changed from their normal blue to flaxen yellow. He lurched forward clutching his stomach as a pair of fangs sprouted out of his canines.

I found that despite my history with this mere boy I could feel no contempt seeing him again. As I suspected, as he was now my vampiric offspring I felt that emotional tether siring one always brought about. Reaching over, I offered him my exposed wrist. His eyes glanced up, before new instincts took over and he sank his fangs down through the skin. My blood passed once more and he feed, drawing strength from the empowered blood on an ancient.

"That's enough." I stated and reluctantly he let go. "On your feet." William did as ordered, unable to do anything else. I was his sire after all. "I am Kain, your Master. Do you understand?" The boy king was unclothed apart from the bandages wrapped around his body. "I asked you a question."

"Yes Master." He replied with a short bow of his head, blood staining his lower lip. Well, at least this was off to a good start. Well, I was unsure technically if it was or wasn't but I knew of no other way to deal with fledgling vampires.

"What is your name?" I asked him. William stood there, eyes wide and mouth slightly agape.

"I…I don't know." He replied. I managed a small smile. "I…I know… I know I have one. Why can't I remember?" he asked out load. Amnesia right on cue. Any corpse raised this way would often forget their past lives. This was why none of my first six sons remembered their previous lives as Sarafan inquisitors. This made things far easier. William would be easier to train if he did not recall I was the one who killed him.

"Your name is William." I told him. But that was the only tether to his past life I was going to let him know about. "You are a vampire, my kin. As such you will obey my commands, is that clear?" He nodded once.

He stood there shivering from the cold, half naked and hungry. Vampiric, almost parental, instincts told me I needed to teach him how to hunt. This era of Nosgoth's not last long. I cast my mind back to the time I had raised the Sarafan crypt and raised the six bodies there to be my sons. Raziel had been the first with the others following soon after. A smile forced its way onto my face as I recalled when I took my first born out hunting for the first time.

I looked up to see him staring at the translucent form of Raziel beside me, his eyes wide open in a strange mixture of awe, wonder and mute fear. While he did not remember anything about his past life, enough remained of his human instincts to tell me to be wary of this strange ghost like apparition. He backed up against the side of his stone coffin nearly falling over the edge.

"This is Raziel." I announced gesturing to him. "He is a friend. He will not harm you."

"I couldn't even if I wanted to." Raziel added, confirming this by waving his arm back and forth through the wall; showing to William that he had no physical form and thus was not a threat to him.

"I…I am hungry." William stated, his hands clutching his stomach. Vampires were often like this when raised this way. Any and all maturity they might have gained from their human life was gone and they were reduced, practically, to the level of infants.

"Yes…I know." I stated, glancing momentarily past him to the world outside. The rain had stopped by now so he was unlikely to get burned. "Come, now we hunt." I offered him my hand and he took it without hesitation. Vanishing in a translocation spell, I hurled us both across Nosgoth to a safer location to begin teaching this new vampire what he needed to know.

Travelling almost directly south, I took him to the only place I knew for the certain that the Sarafan no longer had a presence. I took him to the city of Meridian. Most of the metropolis was completely deserted, most of the people either fled or taken forcefully by the Order to Willdendorf. A mere few years ago this city had been overflowing with Sarafan, now I doubted there was even a single guard. Even the thieves seem to have deserted this place. The only things that could possible pose even a minuscule threat were the thugs who had remained behind to terrorise the humans that still remained.

Umah had one called this place a perfect place to train me. Well, I needed no training, but the new vampire following behind me most certainly did.

"Do you trust him then?" Raziel asked me even before the spell ended.

"No." I replied. "I'm doing this because it's what I have to." Without William, I would never find the Leviathan Blood and without that I had no hope of curing the vampire race.

"Is that what you thought when you revived me?" Raziel asked before his voice faded away.