Chapter 20- "Picking up the pieces."
Kain pursed his lips in the tense silence that followed and took a moment to let his gaze wander over Dagon's robust form. The Rahabim elder was well muscled beneath his pale skin, crisscrossed with scars across his scales which a casual glance had missed. This Vampire had seen many battles and survived to a grand old age. While he was certainly stronger, Kain knew this was not an adversary to underestimate. He drew himself up, setting his shoulders and fixing the Rahabim with as firm a commanding look as he could.
"You risk much by demanding an explanation from your Emperor. You know who I am. You know what I can do to you." He said, his tone low and ringing with ominous implications, his talons tightening across the Reaver's hilt as he kept it level towards Dagon's chest. "And my right to command you is Divine."
The throng of smaller Rahabim behind Dagon watched this confrontation with obvious anxiety. They were tired and worn from a long and painful journey. Now they found themselves confronted with their God and Emperor, with their guide and protector standing in seeming defiance and it was clearly unsettling them. The adults were moving the fledgling back behind him to the centre of the group to offer them some protection, as if sensing potential violence.
With his back to them, Dagon did not seem to notice. The fins running down the side of his elongated neck rippled as his lips drew back to expose the teeth behind them. His enormous wide mouth was like that of a shark sizing up its prey.
"I don't care." He replied in that wet, slopping voice of his tinged with resentful bitterness. His long crocodile-like tail swished side to side, scattering sand and pebbles in either direction to rattle against the shoreline stones. "I have the last of my clan to protect. To see to it they are protected and watched over by someone who would see them prosper. I will not hand ourselves over unless it is to someone who will stand by us. Convince me you are that person, or just kill us all and be done with it."
At that last remark the other Rahabim all leaned back enmass with startled expressions and Kain could clearly see that Dagon did not speak for them in terms of their own inclinations.
"You presume to judge me? I had a good reason for leaving when I did." He stated, finding himself bristling before Dagon's admittedly accurate accusations. The Rahabim elder pointed a large webbed talon at him.
"Whatever the reason, you still left us. You still abandoned us. You made us fend for ourselves as the world turned brutal." The bitterness dripping from his voice was so strong that Kain saw then it was overriding every other sense, even his sense of duty to the protection of the other Rahabim.
Kain had no real desire to kill this Vampire, whose only crime had been a well earned bitter resentment. There were a number of ways he could handle this, each of them with their own perks and drawbacks. He supposed he could try to explain himself to them, to let them understand that he had not left them behind out of malice but rather extreme need. But such a placating plea would not serve in this circumstance. It was an admission and display of weakness. No; he needed to remind them all, especially Dagon, just who he was.
"Are you or are you not of my bloodline?" He asked them in a menacing tone and as he did, he allowed some bolts of his own arcane force to travel down the length of the Reaver blade like a crackling length of lightning. It was more showy than actually dangerous but it drew everyone's focus directly to the Sword.
They would know the Reaver. They would know the many stories about the sword, passed down from one Vampire generation to the next, about just how deadly it was. Dagon seemed to flinch and took one step back away from the sword, his gaze directly down to it. All the other Rahabim were frozen in place.
"We are of Lord Rahab, who was of you." Dagon replied, after a tense moment had passed. Kain lowered the sword then and placed it point down on the ground, resting his hands on the pommel but still sending some flickering bolts to dance down its serpentine length. He even went so far as to enhance the glow that came from its eye sockets to really sell the effect.
"Then do not make me ashamed of you!" He snapped firmly. "You survived when others did not. Stop whining and endure!"
Dagon stood there rooted to the spot and despite the distinctly non-human face, he had a set of mixed expressions. There was still resentment and anger but also a fearfulness, mixed with a strange sort of reverence as if he had just really internalised that he was standing before the Empire's legendary weapon of annihilation. One of the Rahabim hurried forward and reached out to take hold of their protector's arms in a pair of webbed hands.
"Dagon, we do not wish to pick a fight…" They told him earnestly and despite the same slopping quality to the voice, Kain detected hints of femininity. Dagon glared back at them over his shoulder but the Vampire did not let go. "He is Kain. He is our God!"
"I did not lead us through massacres and across the ocean to merely throw ourselves into the fire for the one who abandoned us!" The elder Rahabim snapped at the younger female.
This was an opening and Kain knew it was to his benefit to take advantage of it. He raised his voice loudly, as loud as he could without shouting, so that most of the Rahabim would hear him clearly.
"Are you all blind? Do you not see that Nosgoth's more dire hour has arrived? That this world which I have ruled for a thousand years stands upon the brink?" He gestured with a nod of his head to the dark outline of Nosgoth's far away shore, the mainland a mere smudge on the horizon. "I might offer you anything! Sanctuary, sucor, protection! But none of that means anything in face of what is to come! There is no place you can go to escape it, no matter how far you swim!"
Moebius' floating head had been floating beside him passively observing this interaction with a clinical expression, but at this blunt statement the ghost of the Time Streamer raised an eyebrow and cast a quizzical look upon his enforced companion for such a combative stance in negotiations. Kain ignored the look, keeping his gaze firmly on Dagon as the elder Rahabim turned back to face him.
"I fight to prevent the world's destruction. Either fight with me or go find some crevice to wither away in. That is the deal I offer you. It is the only deal I can offer you!" He declared, eyes meeting Dagon's as he made sure that the Rahabim understood the courtesy he was giving him; pure and utter honestly. Even if delivered bluntly.
The smaller female Rahabim looked worried up at her elder and she tightened her grip on Dagon's arm.
"Dagon?" She asked urgently.
Dagon stood there in silence for a long moment, eyes fixed on Kain. Then he blinked a few times and his gaze moved to the horizon and the danger which still hung over them, then back to the dependents of his clan massed behind him. They stared back at him with many tense, worried fishy faces.
Slowly the Rahabim elder turned back to look at Kain and as he did, the resentment seemed to drain from his wide face, replaced with a sort of grim acceptance and resignation. With a bit of an awkward lurch he dropped down onto one knee and bowed his head low. Once he had dropped down, all the other Rahabim followed suit almost immediately, bowing again before their Emperor.
"Rahabim! Do you recognise me as your lord and master?" Kain asked of them in that same loud voice which by now was beginning to make his throat sore.
"All hail Kain!" They replied in a tired but enthusiastic unison. Even Dagon joined them in their declaration.
There was a sudden loud thud from behind him, and a shadow suddenly across the beach rising up high and making several of the Rahabim rear back in surprise and extended their frills with a hiss of alarm. Kain turned his head sharply to look back over his shoulder. Looming there was a towering figure with an immense set of shoulders and a chest of muscle powerful enough to be the equivalent of a dozen human men. Fortunately, as soon as Kain saw those elongated facial features and extended fan-like ears, he knew this creature.
"Lord Kain! You live!" Balam of the Turelim declared in some relief as he rose up to his full height. He must have observed the goings on from the cliff above and dropped down. It would have been a jump of quite some distance but he recovered from it quite easily. Turelim were robust enough for that.
"Despite the many vigorous attempts by others to the contrary, yes." Kain remarked wryly and raised one hand to the Rahabim, gesturing for them to calm down and relax. Dagon was seizing Balam up with a sceptical eye. Despite being the largest of the Rahabim by far, Balam still towered several feet over him.
"I take it by your presence that Ajatar and the others are indead here as I was told?" Kain asked. The Turelim nodded and gestured with a hand up the cliff toward the ruins of the Hylden city.
"Yes. She and the other Serioli have taken up residence in the castle." He confirmed gruffly. Kain glanced up with a smile.
"Good, then I must speak with her at once." He said, then paused to cast a glance back over the Rahabim, who still had their frills extended in alarm but at least were no longer hissing at the new arrival.
"Is there a region on this island where they can dwell safely?" He asked Balam. The large Turelim raised his head to gaze at the Rahabim with a scornful expression creasing his brow. It had not been too long ago where the interests of the Turelim had been in suppressing the expansion of the Rahabim into their own territory and clearly he did not relish the idea of providing aid to a rival clan now. But he did not raise any argument. He would not dare to counteract an edict of the Emperor. Not right in front of him anyway.
"There are caverns that open out to the sea on the western shore. They are occupied by small tribes of humans which have been domesticated by the native Cabal Vampires." He said in a deliberately neutral tone. Kain simply nodded.
"Then please show them where to go. And if you have blood supplies to share, pass them around." He turned and gestured to the Rahabim Elder who was still standing there with a hard look toward the Turelim. "Dagon here is their leader. Coordinate with him."
The two Vampire elders, each of different and opposing clans, met each other's gaze and in the moment of silence that followed Kain perceived a hostility beyond simple faction. Each of them tensed, muscled visibly tightening as they were both preparing for an attack by the other.
"Is something the matter?" He asked with a flat tone.
"We have met before." Balam replied in a growl without taking his eyes off of Dagon. The Rahabim gurgled back in confirmation.
"In battle." He added. In almost perfect sync the two of them step toward each other and glared right into each other's eyes.
"I nearly had you outside the walls of Coorhagen." Balam growled, baring his fangs. Dagon's lips peeled back showing all of the teeth within his wind jaw.
"And I nearly had you in that ambush on the bridge." He said. Both of them began to emit a low menacing growl which reveperated between them and seemed to make the air around the two Vampires resonate.
Kain raised a hand, about to intervene when suddenly they both reached forward and grasped the other by the arm in the soldiers greeting; a gesture that transcended time and species. Kain was left standing there with a baffled expression as the two of them simply stared at each other grasping each other's arms. Then each let go and Dagon turned to rejoin the members of his clan.
"I will see to their needs, Lord Kain." Balam said, now in a solemn tone of voice. "They will be well tended to." Without another word he turned to follow after them. Kain was left standing there with one slowly ascending eyebrow
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"This was more taxing on my strength than the flight here had been."
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With the odd situation on the beach dealt with, Kain firmly put that scene out of his mind and turned to look up at the cliff with the dark shapes of the ancient Hylden city towering over it. He was still tired from the long journey but he was not about to waste time down here catching anymore of his breath. Drawing upon his inner reserves he once more let himself dissipate into bat form, his body exploding into a flock of flapping creatures that soared from the beach up the side of the cliff.
Vorador's castle had been built on the edge of a bluff overlooking the ruins of the Hylden city, constructed from debris from the city by the Cabal so that their sire might live in luxury during his exile. In many ways it was larger than his former home in the depths of the black forest and the Cabal had shown great architectural skill in using the unfamiliar materials around them to build it.
Circling it once, Kain surveyed the fortress and saw that it was indeed a good defensive position. It was situated high enough that it could see for miles in all directions. A cliff with a steep drop spanned by a drawbridge protected its main entrance and its many battlements and parapets would allow for a vantage point to deal with any invader. Even perhaps an enraged and powerful Dragon.
Kain swept down out of the skies and landed upon the largest battlement that faced out to the east, reforming back into his solid form. As he did so, one of the blue skinned Serioli emerged from an arched stone doorway leading into the fortress. He had clearly seen battle recently as the armour across his forearms and shins was battered and crisscrossed with strokes from a blade. The sentry stiffened in alarm when he saw Kain, clearly not expecting to find someone here on his watch at all.
"Lord Kain!" He explained and immediately dropped down to one knee, curling his wings close to his back.
"Announce to Ajatar Cadre that I have arrived!" Kain told him with a firm voice. "And be swift! I have urgent business!"
"As you command, my lord." The sentry declared and quickly rushed back the way he had come.
Beside again, Moebius's fiery unseen visage was staring after him in slack jawed stunned and even horrified amazement.
"The blue skinned originals? No, this can not be! Janos Audron was the last! How…?"
"Do try to keep up, Moebius." Kain told his enforced travelling companion, striding into the doorway, sliding the Reaver back into place across his shoulder. "I don't have time for you to gawk over every little thing you missed."
The interior of Vorador's keep was far less coated in luxurious splendour as his former swamp bound mansion had been, but still had the regular trappings of soaring architecture with arched doorways and carved pillars. When Kain had exiled Vorador and his brood to this place it had been intended to be a prison of squalor and depredation. And yet even here Vorador had managed to carve out some level of refinement from the blasted wilderness beyond the rim of the world.
Ajatar Cadre, leader of the Serioli, was waiting for him in a large hallway with an arched ceiling at the far side of the stone corridor leading from the battlement along with about five of her soldiers. She looked marginally better then when he had least seen her, hurled out of Melchiah's chamber by his own telekinesis. She had fed recently and looked strong enough, but the dark shadows around her eyes and the battered condition of her clothes and armour told of a long period of time spent with too little rest and too much ill news.
As soon as she saw him, she too began to lower herself down onto one knee followed by her soldiers but Kain forestalled her with a grunt and a wave of his hand.
"Dispense with the formalities, Ajatar. I have journeyed far to get here and I am weary. I have neither the time nor the patience for a welcoming ceremony." He told her, striding up to her side. His expression was stern, a frown creasing his crown-ike brow. "Where is Raziel? What happened after the chamber collapsed?"
Ajatar seemed taken aback for a moment by his harsh tone and the relief which had appeared on her face at her first having seen him faded. Her expression became troubled and she did not quite meet his gaze.
"I…I don't know." She admitted and she sounded as tired as she looked. "When you threw me out of the chamber, my way back was blocked by the rubble. I was too weak from battle so I had no choice but to retreat. I did not see Raziel …or our enemy return."
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"Ominous tidings at a dire time. I must have faith that a being such as Raziel had survived. But by that same token I must believe Abaddon had as well."
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A momentary vision of Asmodeus, transformed into the ghoulish Abaddon, flashed in Kain's mind as he called the struggle in Melchiah's chamber. If the False God had spoken truthfully, the source of that new enemy's great strength came from the slither of elemental material inside his heart. How so small a piece could augment Asmodeus into the force of Nature Abaddon Kain did not know, but if the only way to kill him was to tear out his heart then that was a tactic he was more than happy to adopt.
"So you returned to my cliffside fortress?" He surmised. Ajatar nodded.
"Yes…I regrouped with my Serioli there." Her head turned to regard the soldiers behind her but then hesitated again. "But when we saw the Dragon on his way, we knew that we were in jeopardy." Her expression turned mournful and she lowered her head. "I am sorry I could not defend your fort, my lord."
Kain merely grunted in response.
"The fort's position was untenable. You did better to preserve the fighting force." He told her that seemed to alleviate her gloom. He just had to firmly press the image of all the fort's beautiful, soaring stonework, delicate stained glass windows and elaborate furnishings out of his mind. But this was hard to do when faced with Vorador's own stronghold and he had to bite his bottom lip in an effort to push down a certain resentment. Reminded of the old Vampire by his train of thought, he looked around.
"And where is Vorador?" He demanded.
"Father has gone with the Humans to their chosen sanctuary." Another, far more sultry voice responded before Ajatar could answer.
Kain drew in a slow breath and turned to face another doorway. Leaning against its stone frame, arms crossed, was Umah. Restored from her body of armour which had housed her soul, she now had a form which was a cross somewhere between an ancient Vampire and her old fledgling appearance, all while topped with Hylden type crest and a set of curving horns. This body, created in the forge of the Seroli master Ukko, had merged her soul with that of Ashar the Hylden King. The Hylden additions, both physical and spiritual, did much to enhance her charismatic appearance.
"Good to see you again, Kain." She said to him with a half smile.
"Umah." He nodded to her, in a formal tone of voice. Umah did not take any offence to his standoffish manner, in fact seeming to enjoy provoking it in him. She pushed off from the doorway and approached in her swaying gait.
""And just where have you been? We were beginning to wonder if any of father's messengers would ever reach you." She said.
"I was….preoccupied with something." Kain replied, giving the floating head of Moebius a half glance. It still seemed that indeed no one, not even the forged Umah, could see the spirit of the former Time guardian other than himself as no one was reacting to the presence of the flaming head of an old man. Moebius was squinting at Umah with a puzzled expression, as if trying to figure out just what sort of creature she was. He would have seen nothing quite like her before.
"Why has Vorador gone with the Humans?" Kain then asked, frowning at the thought of it suddenly. "I know he has more love for them than I do."
Umah waved a hand
"He went in order to consult with Skelim and Lorenzo on how to operate the forge. Ukko's secrets require time to unlock, as well as sage council." She said in reply and her expression soured. "I would have gone, for Ashar's wisdom would be useful in this…but he told me to remain here."
"One might think he's being protective." Kain responded, raising an eyebrow and managing a smile.
"One might think he's being overly projective." Umah retorted flatly. Kain glanced between the two Vampire ladies
"Who is here then?" He asked
"The Serioli and the Turelim, as many of them as we could bring. Just us here." Ajatar told him.
"Well now you have Rahabim here." Kain informed her brisky. "Balam is seeing to them right now, down on the shore. We will need them fed and ready to fight." After a moment, a long reluctant moment, he added; "But I have more immediate concerns. I require counsel."
Both Ajatar and Umah looked at him with puzzled expressions, sensing in his tone and manner the deep reluctance to speak he now felt. This was it. The moment he wondered if he might ever actually get to. But now it was here he found that, despite all his misgivings and personal thoughts, he must go through with it.
He met their gazes with his own steely expression, hardening himself to the task at hand. Beside him, Moebius seemed to sense that the moment had come as well and was watching the Emperor of Nosgoth intently.
"I have spoken with our enemy, the false God of the Divus." Kain finally began and suddenly he had everyone's undivided attention, even the Serioli soldiers that flanked their leader. "He has put a proposal to me."
At this news Ajatar's expression hardened dramatically, brow furrowed and lips pursed in what could only be described as displayed contempt. Her soldiers behind her exchanged startled glances, a few looked even tinged with fear. Umah raised an eyebrow quizzically, keeping her expression neutral otherwise."
Folding his arms behind his back, Kain carried on; "He declares that if we draw back and allow him and the Divus to depart Nosgoth upon the Ark, then we would be hunted no more and that Nosgoth would be ours again upon his departure." Somehow he managed to state it without sneering or adding any commentary. It felt like a gargantuan chore.
"And you do not believe him." Umah said, speaking aloud his thoughts as if she could read them from the pages of an open book. Kain paused for a long moment.
"No." He confirmed, still in that same forced flat tone. "But I do not have the luxury of simply dismissing the prospect and its strategic advances. Nor I can not afford to let my preconceptions cloud my judgement at such a time. So I would ask your opinion on this matter."
Behind Ajatar, her Serioli soldiers turned to one another and despite discipline dictating otherwise began to whisper to one another.
"Can this be true?" One of them asked in a low, startled voice.
"A truce?" Another asked, eyes wide. "Is this a chance for peace?"
"It could all be over!" A third whispered and relief filled his face and tone.
Ajatar turned sharply to glare at them over her shoulder and her look had outright contempt and disgust plain in it.
"Don't be such naive fools!" She snapped at him in a voice of ringing command and instantly all of her soldiers straightened to attention, chagrined. The Serioli Grandmaster's entire body seemed to radiate her emotions at this moment. Kain could almost feel the anger washing against him like the waves on the shore.
"I have never spoken with God, not even during the ancient time when we fought in the old war with the Hylden." She said, turning back, fists clenched at her side. "But I saw enough of his edicts and commandments to know that they brought nothing but pain, death and the deepest suffering!" Her voice rose in volume as she spoke as did the anger in which she articulated her words. "Through the Divus his commands changed my people from a philosophical, contemplative civilisation to a barbaric theocracy that considered death to be the ultimate expression of faith!"
Kain cast another quick glance at Moebius, the silent observer to this conversation. The spirit of the former Time Guardian had his eyes on the displayed anger of the Serioli Grandmaster and somehow he appeared just as angry as she was. If it were because of indignation at her accusations for his god or some other reason, he couldn't guess.
"It is possible, given our successes, that we have pushed him to the point where he has decided to play it safe." He said. He didn't believe it of course but he decided to play devil's advocate for the sake of the discussion.
Ajatar looked at him and that look was not the look a subordinate would ever normally give their superior. It was filled with disdain and a profound rejection. She even went so far as to raise a hand and poke Kain in the chest with one of her talons.
"I would no more trust an offer from that…that thing…then I would from the foulest of Demon kind!" She declared.
Umah, who so far has kept quiet, finally decided to speak.
"Let's suppose, for the sake of argument, that the offer is sincere." She said and all heads turned to look at her. Ajatar looked even angier. "They depart, leave us behind and they never trouble us again. All well and good for us." Then Umah pointed up toward the ceiling with a talon. "But do we not give some thought to whoever else crosses their path?"
When no one answered her question, she strode over to a nearby window. The view looked out over a curve in the island's shoreline. The sky overhead roiled with black clouds as if a storm was gathering. She gestured with one arm toward that black sky.
"Out there in the cosmos are worlds beyond count, unspoiled and untouched by the evil which had plagued Nosgoth. And here we are to consider allowing that evil to wash over the universe to merely save ourselves?" She perched herself on the windows edge, hands grasping each side of the window so that the light cast a shadow over her face.
"No, no I could never live with it." She declared and her tone was suddenly fierce. "This creature that calls itself God is a threat not just to us but all creation and it has to be destroyed. Even if it requires sacrificing Nosgoth itself to do it."