Chapter Seven: The Canyons
"Wild Places"
A glyph energy-powered vehicle approaches a guarded gate.
SERAPHAN KNIGHT
(bored)
Name and business.
 CARTER
What’s this? By thunder, every week I depart by this gate.
SERAPHAN KNIGHT
(insistently)
Name and business.
CARTER
Turo, bringing supplies to the garrison beyond the abode of the witch. Here is my toll.
SERAPHAN KNIGHT
The bridge is fallen.
CARTER
Again? And they’ve not repaired it?
SERAPHAN KNIGHT
There’s more important matters afoot. A company’s being sent out.
CARTER
The smugglers are to be destroyed at last?
SERAPHAN KNIGHT
Smugglers? There’s worse than that infesting the roads. But now the culprits will be dealt with.
CARTER
At long last. Why pay such high tolls if they won’t keep the roads open, that’s what I say.
SERAPHAN KNIGHT
Hold your tongue! Or you may not keep it long. Open the gates, there!
Two men talk beside a campfire.
MAN 1
I don’t care who says this is the best time of year to find them. It’s too cold, I tell ya.
MAN 2
Quit grumbling. I’m sure we’ll find more tomorrow.
MAN 1
Providing we don’t freeze to death out here.
“Kain” comes upon two bandits in a storehouse.
MALE BANDIT
Was there much to loot from that last convoy of caravans?
FEMALE BANDIT
Little of value. Stories of demons roaming the canyons have scared away most of the prize pickings.
One carter desperately threatens another, who has locked him in a prison cell at a patrol station.
IMPRISONED CARTER
I’ll have you know I have friends in very high places!
You’ll pay for this!
A single Seraphan Knight searches a passage through the canyons with his weapon outstretched.
SERAPHAN KNIGHT
(terrified)
Whatsoever you may be, show yourself!
You found the others –
He is attacked and easily killed by a lesser demon.
“Kain” comes upon a single ore refinery worker who is crawling on the ground, injured and babbling incoherently.
REFINERY WORKER
I told them! She cursed them. I told them! The old witch – her minions will come and slay us all. I told them!
A worker at a destroyed power station babbles fearfully inside a cage that surrounds a shorted power box as “Kain” approaches.
POWER STATION WORKER
I’m not coming out! They’re everywhere! Those horrible beasts! They’re killing everyone in sight! I’m safe here, though. Someone will come to rescue me. Someone will come!
The Seer
The camera cuts to Kain as he enters the house. A woman stands with her back to him.
SEER
Be gone, Dark One. I did not send for you.
Kain moves forward.
KAIN
And yet, here I am.
 The woman turns. She is young, petulant, and stylishly dressed.
SEER
So I see. Kain, the disrupter. The pebble in the pond, who destroys all he touches.
KAIN
You know me, woman?
SEER
Better than you know yourself.
KAIN
Then do you know why I am here?
SEER
Perhaps.
KAIN
I seek information, and I must have it. What can you tell me of the Device?
SEER
The Device?
(Laughs softly)
You’re playing a dangerous game. Return to your night hunting, vampire. Enjoy what time
remains to you, short though it is.
KAIN
I desire far more than blood. Where is the Device? I will not go without an answer.
SEER
Do you so enjoy being Vorador’s lap dog?
KAIN
I am no man’s dog, witch.
SEER
No. I see that now. I sense your conviction…I shall help you. If Nosgoth is ever to be healed, the Device must be destroyed. And you, of all men, could be the one to do it. Know this: the Device has lain dormant, beneath Meridian for time beyond time. But now the Sarafan Lord has empowered the machine to unleash its destruction upon the land. The entrance to the Device lies in the heart of the city itself, under the very noses of the aristocracy. You will know the building by this sign:
 She raises her hand again, and an image of the TK switch appears before them.
SEER
You will see this more than once, but the first one will show you the entrance to the Device. No human can operate it. But a vampire could.
KAIN
What must I do?
SEER
Come here.
(She holds out her hands)
Drink. Drink my blood. Now!
KAIN
(Rears back)
What manner of creature are you? You are like no vampire that I have seen.
SEER
Who I am, what I am, is of no concern to you.
Time presses –
An explosion rocks the house. Kain turns.
SEER
He is here. Do as I tell you. If you are to destroy the device and save Nosgoth, you must drink.
The Seer offers her wrist again. Kain bites down and drinks.
SEER
Agh! Good, yes, drink, my dark prince. Feel my powers coursing through your veins. You can manipulate objects already by sheer will alone. But as you were taught, you can only use this ability at close range. By drinking my blood, you will be granted the gift of Telekinesis. You will be able to manipulate objects at a great distance. And, you will be able to activate this symbol, and enter the Device.
The camera cuts to outside the Seer’s house. We see the Sarafan Lord and several Sarafan archers perched nearby.
SARAFAN LORD
Bathe them in fire. Let them learn as they writhe in the flames and their bones dissolve, the futility of their actions. The vampire, and all of his kind, shall be razed from the land.
 He levels the Soul Reaver at the Seer's house and fires off a blast of energy.
SARAFAN LORD
This world will be made pure by my hand.
The Sarafan Lord gives a signal, and the archers launch a volley of fire arrows that rain down onto the house, setting it alight.
SARAFAN LORD
I will give you the peace you seek, Kain. Your death beckons you.
Cut to the inside, where Kain looks up quickly.
SEER
He has found you. Your destiny draws even closer. I will transport you to the entrance of the Device. From there, use your new-found ability to gain entrance.
KAIN
What of you, Seer? Escape with me. I am in need of allies.
SEER
Am I your ally? My fate lies along a different path. Goodbye, Kain.
The Seer teleports him away.
The Beast
Kain has entered the Hylden building. He descends into a dark corridor of alien architecture, and finds himself in a cavernous room that houses the Beast. The Beast is a wretched, deformed creature attached in numerous ways to a large machine that seems to grow out of the ground. The machine is extracting the Beast's life essence from him at a low level as Kain approaches. This is discernable through the clear tubes that are drawing this essence from him, and the low, slow sound of the machine's workings. When the Beast rouses himself, the machine starts working faster.
 KAIN (VO)
Strange how one's life casts a shadow far beyond one's own understanding. Here, in this alien vault I discovered a being whose existence was entwined with mine far more than I could ever imagine.
BEAST
(Opens his eyes; almost without energy)
Who disturbs me?
(Looks at Kain)
Not one of my captors…
(Rouses suddenly)
Kain….?
The machine sounds increase, the machine works faster. Obviously, any energy exerted by the Beast is harvested from him instantly, and painfully, by the machine. The Beast gasps and falls back down. After awhile, the machine slows as well, leaving the Beast breathing hard.
KAIN
You know me, monster? My memory at present has its flaws, but I should certainly remember such as you.
BEAST
(Lying still, looking up)
We have not met. I know of you, of course. That you can return from the dead gives hope to us all.
KAIN
I seek an ancient device of great power. I am prepared to kill any who stand in my way.
BEAST
Have no fear of me. I am enslaved by the fiends that built this monstrosity, to feed this machine
with my life.
KAIN
Then perhaps we have an interest in common. I am here to destroy the device.
BEAST
Yes. Yes, I can help you, then.
The Beast sits up carefully, to address Kain more clearly. The machine speeds up in response. The Beast carefully husbands his energy as he explains.
 BEAST
That which you seek is too great for you to destroy alone. It descends far underground, it rivals a city in its size. To destroy the device, you must seek out the being that built it.
KAIN
The Sarafan Lord?
BEAST
No, no, it is older, far older.
The machine starts working faster, as the Beast struggles to explain.
BEAST
Those who dwelt in Nosgoth eons ago left some structures in their passing. The device is one. The Sarafan Lord discovered how to use it. Only the Builder can make it stop.
KAIN
Do you mean to tell me that this being still lives? Impossible.
The Beast is gasping in pain, the machine inexorably drawing away his life force.
BEAST
He is…listen to me. There is a place in Nosgoth, far to the north, where time means nothing, where hours and years are frozen for eternity. The Eternal Prison. The wretches imprisoned there pay for their crimes for eternity. The builder is there.
The Beast falls back, exhausted.
KAIN
The Eternal Prison. I have heard of such a place. I did not realize it was so close to Meridian. How
do I reach it?
BEAST
(Quietly)
There is a tunnel leading out of the city through this room. It will take you into the Prison.
KAIN
And if this builder refuses my help?
BEAST
Tell him you wish to destroy the device. Believe me, he will aid you.
KAIN
I hope, for your sake, that what you have told me is true.
BEAST
(Laughs a little)
You may believe me. Destroying the device…will free me…at last. I will be in your debt, Kain.
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