A Thousand Years

Chapter Seventeen: Turel's Frenzy

What I saw as I stepped back into the main hall was not what I had expected to see.

Bodies.

Perhaps sixty human bodies lay sprawled bloody, mangled, and very much dead all over the great hall.

...Needless to say I was not pleased.

Each of their bodies had been drained, from the looks of things. Whoever killed them had gluttoned themselves on all the blood. There was a shuffling from down one of the halls, and I remained where I was standing as Dumah and Rahab entered into the hall, not even noticing me as they walked forward to pick up another pair of bodies and start dragging them out.

The clearing of my throat was deafeningly loud, as my brothers whirled around to stare at me in shock. "R-raziel!" Dumah gasped, the body he was holding slipping from his grasp to fall to the floor. "You're awake!"

"I am," I replied coldly, walking over to them and stepping over the bodies as I went. "What the hell happened here?"

"When you didn't return to the hall, Turel sent Melchiah to go check up on you. When Melchiah told him that the same 'sickness' that had engulfed Kain had taken you with it, Turel went into a rage and began killing every human he could get his hands on." It was Rahab who replied, staring grimly at the dead bodies lying all around. "We heard the screaming and ran to see what had happened. Melchiah told us of your condition, and it was Dumah that realized he must have been in the Sleep of Change, and it had dragged you down with him."

"I'd found a few vampiric books in Vorador's library," Dumah explained, "And they mentioned how the metamorphosis sleep can be contagious, though it will not cause the others to change as well."

"In any case," Rahab continued gruffly, "We finally managed to restrain Turel, and confined him to his room. Melchiah and Zephon are guarding him now."

"How many humans survived?" Kain's cold voice growled from behind us. Both Rahab and Dumah turned to him in surprise, their shock growing as they took in his newly modified appearance. "And what have you been doing with the bodies?"

"Twenty-six," Dumah murmured, fascinated by Kain's hands and feet. "We've been taking the bodies and scattering them in the woods, leaving them for the ravens and the wolves to feast on. Hanging them in trees or shoving them beneath logs, whatever inconspicuous places we could find."

Kain snarled slightly, "You're fortunate winter is setting in. Once the corpses freeze, they'll provide an all-winter feast for the scavengers. Otherwise we'd have to worry about the forest suddenly adopting the stench of rotting meat." He paused slightly, smirking after a moment, "And without the usual number of winter-induced casualties in the predator population... Their numbers may indeed flourish and they could very well adopt a taste for human flesh, making these woods even more unfriendly to intruders. This could very well work to our advantage."

Both Rahab and Dumah seemed to relax a bit at this news, Rahab even going so far as to permit himself a small sigh of relief. Kain dismissed them back to their work with a flick of his cloven hand, then headed off for Turel's room. I followed into step behind him hesitantly, then more confidently as he made no complaint.

Melchiah and Zephon were every bit as surprised to see us as Rahab and Dumah, but neither spoke a word as Kain flippantly waved them aside and made his way into the room. Within, Turel stopped his pacing and turned to gape at us as well.

"I think..." Kain mused, gazing cooly upon Turel's gaze, which was an interesting mixture of defiant and cowed, "that a lesson in self control should be taught. From now on, in addition to your training with me, you will be taught how to better control your temper. Also, you will be solely in charge of rounding up a new herd for us. In response to your gluttony, you will only feed the bare minimum until I say otherwise. Do I make myself clear, Turel?"

Turel's head bowed, brows twisted in a scowl. "Yes, Kain."

"Also," he added, with a devious little smirk on his lips, "You will now call me Lord Kain, as I believe I am entitled."

...I should have known the change would go to his head.

A/N: I am a horrible, horrible person. . ; I am SO sorry. Also sorry the chapter's so short, but I think it's about time for a time jump. We basically know what's happening for a while now... Getting the human herd, fighting the cities, advancing Kain's reign, and his continuously swelling ego. I think I'll jump a couple hundred years ahead, about to the time when Raziel can start creating children of his own... Or maybe after he's created a few. While roleplaying with one of my friends dealing with the Razielim clan, there were quite a few characters that were crossovers from different games/stories. I may do this... but to keep it more 'realistic' to the LoK world, I would probably just use the characters and not include their pasts from the other games.

Also...

"Light", you were my 101st Reviewer and as such you get to pick out any scene from this pic for me to draw! Dun dun duuuuun! Drop me an e-mail at and let me know what you'd like that to be. If you don't want to, that's fine too, just let me know and I'll pass it to the next person.

THANKS EVERYONE!