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Chapter Eight: The Eternal Prison
"Bad Blood"

“Kain” enters the towering mountainside gates of the Eternal Prison, which face out toward the dark coastline.  He is immediately greeted by a wraith-like creature.

PRISON GUARDIAN  
You there!  I don’t know you.  Are you a guest?  A visitor?  An intruder?  We do not permit guests to disturb our routine.  We are involved in important work here, and nothing – nothing – must be allowed to interfere.  This is a place where those who have transgressed the laws of the gods and man, and so have created a dangerous imbalance within themselves, contemplate the wrongs that they have done, through peaceful, uninterrupted meditation, until they have regained the balance of their true, perfect inner nature.  This process must not be interrupted for any reason, until a spiritual transformation has been achieved, however long that may take.  Thus, no guests, no visitors, are allowed.  And intruders, we know how to deal with.  Go.  Now.    

Once again, “Kain” is halted by a warden, this time in a room filled with clocks, and housing an orrery.      

PRISON GUARDIAN  
You there!  I see you have not yet found your way out.  I suggest you do so.  Your presence may disrupt the progress some are making toward fulfilling the inner balance of their perfect nature, and that cannot be allowed.  Heed my warning and depart at once!

Another warden, identical in appearance to the first, activates a switch on the orrery.  The clocks respond, and “Kain” is transported to another time/place within the prison.

 

On his way back to the room he was banished from previously, he is halted once more.

PRISON GUARDIAN  
You!  Have I not told you that you do not belong in this place?  Have I not told you to go?  But you have not heeded my warnings.  Now I must explain my meaning in a manner you are sure to understand!

A human prisoner responds to “Kain’s” approach with panic.

EYELESS WRETCH
Oh!  No, get away!  I’m not ready!  I don’t want to die!
 

A deranged human prisoner beseeches “Kain” as he passes by.

EYELESS WRETCH
Biscuit!  He took it.  He shouldn’t have!  Biscuit, please!  Have you got a biscuit?  Oh, just one.  Biscuit, please!
 

A human prisoner sings to herself.

EYELESS WRETCH
Four-hundred-million, six-hundred-seventy-six-thousand, two-hundred-twelve bottles of ale on the wall. Four-hundred-million, six-hundred-seventy-six-thousand, two-hundred-twelve bottles of ale…
 

A loud voice is heard in the distance as a human prisoner comes running up to cower at the opposite side of some iron bars near “Kain”.

MALE EYELESS WRETCH
Help me!  Let me out of here!  I didn’t do nothing!  Don’t let him get me!  Help me!  Help me!

The source of the voice makes itself known as a severely-mutilated vampire lumbers forward, still attached to torturous machinery.

MAD VAMPIRE
…Meat…It must be blanched!  It must be poached!  It must be fresh!  Where is my meat?!  Sopping with blood!  Running with gore!  Here?  There!

PRISON GUARDIAN 2
Get back!

MAD VAMPIRE
Give me meat!  Fourteen-hundred ounces every day!  And it will be fresh, and on two legs.  Or in this case, four!

The deranged vampire leaps upon the wardens, killing them both, before turning to the cowering human.

MAD VAMPIRE
No, no, I’ve had my allotment.  Fourteen-hundred ounces, or twenty stone.  You may go!

He picks the human up and throws him through a glass window, killing him.  The mad vampire then chases after “Kain” until he slips and falls into a hole filled with water, allowing “Kain” to escape.
 

The Builder

Kain completes a puzzle that rotates the Builder's cell to Kain.  Kain steps forward and opens the cell.  Inside is the Builder, who resembles the Hylden in his features, although he looks withered and close to death.

KAIN
Prisoner.  I require information.

The Builder slowly opens his eyes and looks up at Kain.

BUILDER
You…are not a jailor.  I beg you, release me…

KAIN
First, you must answer me.  I seek a prisoner in this place, a builder.  He created a large Device that lies below the city
of Meridian.

BUILDER
Seek no further.  I am he.

KAIN
How fortunate.  I intend to destroy this Device. I was told only you can tell me how.

BUILDER
I can indeed help you, but in return I need an end to my suffering.

KAIN
Tell me of the Device and I will grant you any request within my power.

BUILDER
Yes, yes… The Device was built as a weapon, eons ago when two races warred with each other for dominance of Nosgoth. It houses an ancient creature, who’s very mind is capable of killing any living thing with but a thought. The Device was to channel the mental energy of this creature, and direct it onto Nosgoth.  It would attune the creature’s mind to kill all living creatures except for my race.  Before it could be completed, however, I was imprisoned here, and the rest of my race was banished to another, far more terrible, realm.

KAIN
So this Device was never finished.  And yet the creature still lives within it?

BUILDER
It was dubbed “The Mass.”  It is eternal and deadly, yet harmless without a channel for it’s mind.  We never completed the weapon.  We needed a way to send its energy out of the Device and into the land itself.  We needed a conduit spread all throughout the cities, a network, if you will.  Once this network was created, the Device would channel the mental energy of the Mass, and send death upon our enemies.

KAIN
(slowly understanding)
You say a network?  Placed like a web throughout a city? 

BUILDER
We never completed the network.  We never used the Device.

KAIN
But the Sarafan Lord will.  The Glyphs!  He is using the Glyphs to channel the Mass, to wipe out the city, humans and vampires alike!  That must be his plan!

BUILDER
If this is indeed true, you must act quickly.  It would be too large a task to destroy the Device itself.  You must kill The Mass itself.

KAIN
You said this creature was eternal.

BUILDER
It has a simple weakness.  Blood is like poison to its system.  And not any blood, but pure blood from the Elder races.  My blood.  My blood will poison and kill the creature.  Drink from me, vampire, and use my life’s blood to kill that which I created, out of arrogance and pride.  Kill me so that the Mass will die, and the Device will be destroyed!

KAIN
You have suffered here an eternity, poor wretch.  I will grant you release from your prison, I will carry your blood in my veins, and I will bring the Sarafan Lord’s plans tumbling before him. 

Kain tears into the Builder's throat.  The Builder collapses, dead.
 

Two more wardens appear before “Kain” after several more attempts to stop him by force.

PRISON GUARDIAN 1
You have ruined everything.

PRISON GUARDIAN 2
Now these lives can never be redeemed.

PRISON GUARDIAN 1
Our great experiment, for nothing!

PRISON GUARDIAN 2
For nothing!

Magnus

 

“Kain” comes to courtyard containing a circular pool surrounded by statues.  On the opposite side of the courtyard, he sees the mad vampire, who has been hounding him since their first encounter.    

MAD VAMPIRE
So many enemies, both stone and flesh!  I won’t lift a finger!  I will destroy you with my mind!

He leaps to a pedestal in the center of the pool and begins trying to immolate “Kain”.

MAD VAMPIRE
(laughs)
I will divine from your entrails!
Be glad I only incinerate you!

After being knocked from the pedestal into the water enough times, he cries out and runs into a larger courtyard on a level below. 

He runs around aimlessly, charging at “Kain” when he sees him.

MAD VAMPIRE
Where has he hidden himself?
What?  Where?  Who?
The spirits have told me to destroy you!
Prepare for oblivion!

As “Kain” dodges the mad vampire’s charges, he collides with the statues, allowing “Kain” to activate them.

MAD VAMPIRE
I didn’t think it possible.

After running into four statues and activating them, the central statue, which had been demolished, reconstructs itself.  (It is, inexplicably, of Moebius.) 

MAD VAMPIRE
What strange magic is this?

Kain strikes a final blow that brings the vampire to his knees.  Before Kain can finish him, the vampire looks up, and his crazed features have transformed into something more lucid.  He looks around, confused.  Kain pauses, claws back, ready to strike.

MAD VAMPIRE
The fog lifts…
(He focuses on Kain)
Sire – wait…

KAIN
What trickery is this?

MAD VAMPIRE
No trickery, sire.  I am your servant once again.  Your champion.

KAIN
Pathetic wretch.  I have no…
(Stops.  Looks at the Mad Vampire more closely)
Magnus?  Could it be?

MAD VAMPIRE
It is I, sire. 

KAIN
How is this possible?

KAIN
Here, in this cursed place, was my finest warrior.  The Sarafan fell before him by the score.  Together, he and I were invincible.  Until –

KAIN
Magnus.  The traitor.  Is this your reward for betraying me to the Sarafan Lord?

MAGNUS
Sire, I did not –

KAIN
You left my camp in the night to join with my enemy, like all the others.

MAGNUS
Sire, no.  I wanted only to serve you.  I thought, in my pride, I would strike a blow that would end the war.  I went to kill the Sarafan Lord, alone.  I was your champion.

KAIN
You never returned.

MAGNUS
I failed you.  I tried to kill him.  Even now I cannot remember how he defeated me.  I was stuck down, helpless at his feet.  And then through his foul magic he took my mind, and transported me here, to this hellhole.  But what of you, Sire?  I heard that you were dead.

KAIN
Not so dead as some would like to have me.  As you see, I have returned.
Magnus, my champion, you have suffered long enough.  It is with pride that I grant you your death.

With a quick movement, Kain kills Magnus.

MAGNUS
Sire, my thanks…

“Kain” draws the Immolate ability from Magnus' body.

KAIN
Go, my friend.  Be free.  As the rest of us, living or dead, can never be.