Kain kept his eyes firmly on that gleaming white crystal, feeling himself slowly tense as if instinctively preparing for immediate action. His lips curled down over his teeth in a frown and his brow furrowed, fists clenching at his sides. It was perhaps a good thirty feet between himself and that crystal. A distance he could easily jump. He could be on that crystal in a moment and he felt fairly confident that he could tear it away from Thanatos' collar without much difficulty. One swift action would be all it would take to render the Dragon neutralized.
-0-
"So here was the leverage the Divus had on the last of the Dragons, their means through which they controlled so mighty a force of nature. But also a potential weak spot. If that crystal could be destroyed or dislodged, then Thanatos would no longer be a threat. I admit I felt some small amount of pity for the plight of such a proud creature but I would not let that stop me. If an opportunity presented itself, I would kill him."
-0-
However the destruction of his mountain fortress, rubble strewn all around him, was an ever present reminder of how much devastation Thanatos could unleash if he chose. The Vampire had seen first hand the pure elemental fury on more then one occasion. Dragons, or Uni as he understood they preferred to call themselves, were being so in tune with the elemental forces they could conjure them at a whim putting even the most adept Serioli smith to shame.
Slowly Kain's eyes moved up from the crystal to look at the face of the Dragon hovering overhead, those hard eyes glaring down at the length of a snout full of foot long jagged teeth at him. Grimly, Kain was forced to admit that if he were to attempt such a reckless action Thanatos would strike him down before he even got close. The Dragon was no fool and would not let his guard down around an enemy. If that crystal was a weakness to exploit, Kain knew he would have to wait for a more opportune moment to take advantage of it. would
"Yes, I can see your dilemma." The Vampire began instead, picking up the conversation they had left off. "That would be a thorny problem to contend with."
Thanatos snorted, nostrils distending, blowing hot air out over Kain's face as his head lifted back aloft and taking the crystal well out of reach.
-"If my people are to ever come again then I must survive. Even if that means a degrading servitude. I have a duty to my species."- Thanatos' projected thought said and those words, said with such bitterness, filled Kain with a powerful sense of repetition.
"And a great anger to spite those who put you in this position." He said quickly, causing Thanatos to tilt his head to level one eye upon him. "You can feel the hatred driving you forward. The desire to beat them one day, to break free and not succumb to the hand fate has dealt you."
A moment of silence endured between them, the two of them looking at each other with an understanding gaze.
-"They did this to you?"- Thanatos asked and the echoing telepathic voice sounded almost sympathetic.
"In a far more roundabout way, yes." Kain admitted but chose not go into any details. He did not want to have to explain his personal history with this type of no win scenario to the Dragon. It'd take more time then he had at the very least. Thanatos regarded him coyly from the top of his long neck.
-"And what did you do about it?"- He asked, the tone of his mental voice taking on an amused quality.
"Defiance. Why do you think they hate me so much?" Kain could not help but let a small grin part his lips. Thanatos' wide mouth curved slightly at either end. The Dragon did not have the same type of facial muscles to produce similar expressions to a humanoid face but that was undeniable a smile.
-"Their fear of you is something I have seen in each and every one of them. They have lived as the ascended saints of a demi-god pantheon for all of their bloated, privileged lives and now you come with your sword in hand. You embody to them that which they preach but never accept."- His reptilian eyes, surrounded by scar tissue, glinted with malicious amusement. -"Death."-
Kain couldn't help himself. An answering grin split his own face. "Oh how alike we are, Dragon." He said, voice rich with ironic mirth.
-"Perhaps, Vampire."- Thanato conceded. Then the moment was broken and the Dragon's nostrils snorted again, a small flicker of flame dancing before the large snout. -"But as soon as I am given a direct order to kill you and your allies, I will do so without hesitation or mercy."-
Kain's smile vanished in a moment.
"I appreciate your frankness." He said, then continued. "You should know, I was recently offered by them a deal as well. They claimed that if I and my allies, as you put it, stepped back and left their Ark unmolested they would leave us alone as well as protect Nosgoth from the affects of the Equinox."
Thanatos blinked at this and raised his head even higher, shifting his wings so they cloaked the shoulders of his front limbs, giving him the look of a rearing swan. The pose was so near comical that Kain started a little, surprised by the reaction.
-"You know of the Equinox?"- Thanatos asked and there was genuine surprise in his mental tone. By this reaction, Kain supposed that the Divus had not seen fit to let Thanatos know that the oncoming Equinox event was no longer a closely guarded secret. Back in the time when his race had ruled Nosgoth such information would have been reserved for them and them alone, denied to the fledgling races even by the less conservative faction during their civil war.
"I heard of it." Kain replied, watching the Dragon closely. "Indeed my enemies seem to be relying on it."
Thanatos stared down at him from his great height for a long moment before settling down again, the muscles of his snout pulling his scaly lips down to expose the sharp teeth within his mouth.
-"They would use it. For all its potential and grandness is an untapped vast source of power. They have no reverence for its true importance! No sense of occasion or perspective other than their own!"- Those predatory eyes flickered off toward the horizon and the Dragon appeared distracted, as if mulling over unpleasant thoughts. Kain tensed, wondering if the opportune moment had arrived for him to strike. No. The crystal was still not within easy range.
-"That offer is no more substantial than the one they offered me. It is a contemptible, obvious lie!"- Thanatos said in a mental statement dripping with scorn. Behind him his tail lashed like a whip and knocked a half standing wall down. It clattered to the ground like a thud and a spreading cloud of dust. -"No, no! They would never simply leave you behind. They fear you far too much for that. Total destruction of you and everything you represent is required for their collective ego to ever be satisfied."-
Try as he might, Kain could not help but find himself liking this Dragon's adept perception and cynical personality. His point about the psychological aspect of the Divus was also an astute observation which he himself had not considered. For the Divus, Kain was indeed an anathema, something which vexed them so profoundly that they were directing a war of annihilation against him and any perceived ally. His very presence had upset their centuries long plans and paranoia that he might ruin their designs for the Ark would be all consuming. Such fear would never allow for honest negotiation.
"The offer came directly from the mouth of their God." The Vampire said, more musing openly to himself about it when a real response.
Thanatos lashed his tail again, this time with enough force to make a loud cracking sound in the air like the snap of a whip. It echoed off the mountainside, rolling like thunder,
-"And he is the biggest liar of all! He is nothing but a bloated, parasitic entity born of the first Equinox! Gluttony personified!"- The Dragon's thought was filled with loathing and hatred so palpable Kain could feel it lapping against his own mind. It was almost intoxicating.
Raising himself up onto all four legs, Thanatos padded up until he sat atop a flat rock staring off toward the dark western horizon from the end of his craning neck. His long tail coiled tightly around some debris, squeezing it like a snake would its prey, rock grinding loudly on scale. There he sat without any thoughts radiating, his greyhound proportioned body tense with muscles bunched beneath the skin. Kain stood there, waiting.
-"Do you know of the first Equinox, Vampire? And how he and his opposite, the Keeper, came to be?"- Thanatos finally asked, without looking around
"Not in any great detail, I will confess." Kain replied, keeping his voice was deliberately neutral as he could despite the seeming gold mine of information the Dragon seemed willing to reveal. This was intelligence he might very well be able to use. Silence dragged on as Thanatos raised his head and gazed up, peering at the sky as if he could see past the constant obscuring cloud of smog to the sea of stars hidden behind it. Kain wondered in fact if, given his immense elemental power, Thanatos could ever well do so.
-"When the two absolutes, the black void of nothingness and the white void of existence meet... they unleash energies the likes of which can not even be conceptualized. Even my kind."- The Dragon's thought began in a strange, reverent tone that seemed odd to be coming from him. -"These are the energies which shaped the entire universe. Every galaxy, every star, every world, every land; all were given shape and substance in this cauldron of chaotic power. It is the meeting of the possible and the impossible. This was the womb in which the Gods were born."-
The Dragon spread his wings out wide, flapping them several times causing dust and small stone fragments to scatter. Kain had to raise one arm to shield his eyes.
-"You know only of the two which came to this world. The Elder and the Keeper, each intended to act in unison and balance to feed off of and maintain this planet. But there are others. So many others! Scattered through the cosmos, tending to their own worlds so far away we can only dimly glimpse their suns as the stars in the night sky!"- Thanatos declared and his mentally projected voice held a triumphant, reverent note to it.
Kain had seen the two voids before. It had been between them that the Divus had suspected their impossible city of Fanum-Divus, sustained by the lens of the Tempus Crux placed there by Ashar so long ago. When Janos destroyed the lens the city could not long maintain its position and it collapsed, falling into the yawning dark abyss of nothingness below. Those two infinite voids, each as vast and never ending as the other, were all consuming. It had only been in that thin slither on the border between them that Fanum-Divus had been allowed to exist anchored in place.
"And when this second Equinox occurs? More Gods will be born?" Kain asked, feeling a rise of alarm at such a possibility. His experience with the beings who called themselves Gods had been less than cordial. The god of the Divus was a hideous monster and the Keeper, while perhaps more conversational, was not a being he trusted. The idea of more such entities being spawned and laying claim to any part of Nosgoth was highly distressing.
Thanatos grew silent and the large scaly brow furrowed as if in thought. His tail tightened so much around the rocky debris several large boulders broke apart. Kain had to quickly side step to avoid some fragments as they shot past.
-"I can not answer that. Just because it happened the last time does not mean it must happen again. But I simply do not know."- Thanatos' thought said in reply. Kain grunted and rubbed his chin with the back of one talon.
"The fact it happened once is intriguing enough. Most religions believe that a God or set of Gods created the universe. But now, you tell me it was the universe that created them."
Thanatos snorted again.
-"I am no philosophical scholar like Kothar or even Orcus was, but if I were to hazard a guess at their nature then I could assume them to be personifications of matter born from that chaos, matter that perhaps does not naturally exist in the world we call Nosgoth. They exist on nearly every overlapping level of reality, from the material to the spectral to the demonic. They are alien, in every sense of the word. Perhaps, ultimately, they do not belong here."
The Dragon then turned, padding all four feet until he faced the Vampire. Somehow in those old eyes of his Kain perceived a tiredness buried beneath the smoldering coals of resentment. It was the tiredness of a being whose soul had been charred by centuries of anger.
-"We should have used the Celestial Arrow to destroy them both when we had the chance so long ago."- His radiated thought dripped with the bitterness of one who had let opportunity pass them by.
Suddenly the Dragon raised his head and gazed off toward the distant southern horizon. The motion was so swift Kain started, his hand twitching as if to reach for his sword. It took a great deal of effort not to obey that impulse. Thanatos locked his gaze on that horizon and the draconic expression he seemed to adopt was one of irritation and profound annoyance, lips drawn back to expose a row of glimmering teeth.
-"My respite is over. I am called."- His thought rang with the confirmation of an exasperated tone. Raising himself up the Dragon padded past Kain, raising his wings as he did so and spreading them out like the sails of some immense vessel. He flapped them several times, dust and small fragments of debris scattering as the air was stirred. Kain had to hold a hand in front of his face to protect his eyes.
-"Goodbye, Kain. I thank you for the conversation, but make no mistake. When I see you again you and all who stand with you, will burn."-
And with that finally ominous warning Thantos took to the air, launching himself from the edge of the cliff face and soaring away. Within moments he was a distant shape, diving through the dark clouds above. He was so swift that Kain couldn't even keep track of him after that first leap.
The Vampire moved to the edge of the cliff and stood there alone, hair blown fiercely about by the harsh wind at this immense mountain height, surrounded by the shattered rubble that had once been his so-called impregnable fortress. His expression was one of stoic resolve, tinged with a faint far off regret.
"Lost with no real direction for his impotent anger." He said as if the mountain wind itself were listening. "Oh how I know that confusing fog all too well."
Kain stood there staring off, lost in the solitude of the cold mountain air lost in thought. The tenseness he had felt while being in the dragon's presence, a mere moment of death, saved only by the beast's desire for conversation was slowly fading and he felt his muscles relax involuntarily. He let out a gusty breath slowly and closed his eyes.
How complex this had indeed all become, with the road upon which he walked having many twists and turns. So crooked had been his path toward his destiny he scarcely remembered where he had wanted to go in the first place. Friends were enemies, enemies were friends and pity could be felt even for a genocidal monstrosity from before the dawn of civilization. Perhaps he should have risked going for that crystal. Thanatos might have even thanked him for putting him out of his misery.
Slowly Kain's face set into a frown and he turned, glancing back over his shoulder. As he expected hovering there was the sphere of flame that housed Moebius' ghostly face. The burning spirit of the time streamer was staring after the Dragon, brow furrowed in deep concern and chagrin with lips tightly pressed together. It was the look of one who was trying very hard to rationalize a piece of unpleasant news into something more palatable.
"Nothing to say?" Kain asked with no attempt to hide his disdain. Surprisingly Moebius made no immediate response but rather just kept staring off at the now featureless dark sky as if seeking some answers in the clouds.
"What exactly do you expect me to say?" He finally asked without so much as looking down, his voice a distant whisper. Kain sneered, baring his fangs.
"I was anticipating some kind of violent denunciation to the subject of the entire conversation, perhaps with some simpering fawning over your God's virtue thrown in for good measure." His tone was admittedly spiteful and deliberately so.
Moebius' flickering expression seemed to wilt and it became a twisted caricature of emotional distress.
"Kain." He began and in his voice Kain could almost feel his dismay. "I have nothing, nothing left but my service to the Master and his Wheel. What will I have if I can not cling to it?" Moebius had been a master of deception, of hiding his true deviousness and manipulative nature. Kain was not fool enough to trust any reaction he might give as being at least somewhat feigned. But hearing such personal despair coming from the former Time Streamer, feigned or not, was enough to set his teeth on edge.
"Are you asking me for advice?" The Vampire asked incredulously, his sneer deepening. With a grunt he made past the floating orb of fire, moving back from the edge and amongst the shattered rubble of his fortress. "If you want to find meaning in your existence then look for it yourself. No one is going to give it to you. And you should never accept it if they do. Isn't that why you rebelled against your Ancient Vampire masters in the first place? Because you rejected the fate they had in store for you?" He paused before adding; "Behold now the fate your master has bestowed upon you. Look inside and ask yourself, is it a fate you want?"
Silence endured between them for a long moment, broken only by the howl of the cold wind whipping about the cliffs.
"You can contemplate that while I start a fire." The Vampire said bluntly. Moebius blinked and looked after him, confused.
"A fire? What for?"
"Because it's cold up here and I need time to think about what I'm going to do next. Unlike someone I could name, I've actually got more practical problems on my mind then determining the meaning behind my existence."