Chapter Nine: The Device
"Into the Depths"
Kain returns to the Device building after completing the Eternal Prison. Now the blood of the Ancient Being runs through his veins. Once again, he enters the Beast's chamber. The Beast lifts his head, and again, increasing motion on his part causes increasing activity on the part of the machine.
BEAST
I sense…a change in you. You found the Builder.
KAIN
You are perceptive. He gave me his blood as a gift. I gave in return the gift he most wanted; death.
BEAST
You are ready to descend to the Device. Time grows short. My life…is drawn from me. The Device is alive. You must destroy it.
KAIN
 What can you tell me of the creature within.
BEAST
The slaves speak of it as…The Mass. It has great power…yet it is just an animal. The blood in your veins… will kill it…
KAIN
How do I reach the Device?
The Beast gestures weakly, and a wave of force pushes open the doorway of a passage. The machines respond, and the Beast collapses.
BEAST
This passage…will lead you there.
KAIN
I will return when the device is destroyed.
Kain moves to go.
BEAST
Wait…You must know…your true enemies. My captors. They are not of this world. They control the Glyph magic by which Meridian is enslaved. They pull the strings of the Sarafan while in the disguise of the Glyph Wrights. They are called…the Hylden….And their leader is, of course –
KAIN
– The Sarafan Lord.
BEAST
They are powerful creatures, Kain. You will encounter them below. Beware their magic. Now, find the Mass…Destroy the Device.
KAIN
You may toast my victory at day's end. Until then…
“Kain” reaches a vast chamber which is almost completely filled by a throbbing life form that resembles a giant sea anemone.
“KAIN”
At last, I had found it; the foul Mass, hidden within the bowls of the Device. Here was the Seraphan Lord’s ultimate weapon – his trump card, to be played against human and vampire alike. But I had my own weapon. I could feel the Builder’s blood course coldly through my veins. If I could use it to poison this creature, the Seraphan Lord’s plans would be ruined.
“Kain” takes a series of lifts up to a platform overhanging the mouth of the creature and cuts his wrist. After shedding only a few drops of blood, the whole chamber begins to tremble violently, and the Mass begins to rupture. “Kain” flees.
Janos Audron
“Kain” returns to the room housing the Beast. The imprisoning Wards have been deactivated, and within the cage, there is a humanoid figure. The figure straightens up, and wings unfold from his back. Kain is taken aback.
JANOS
 You do not know me for the poor, oppressed beast that crouched here before? Behold, I am restored.
KAIN
What are you?
JANOS
Not what, Kain, but who. My visage is unknown to you, but my name is not. Have you heard the story of the oldest vampire?
KAIN (VO)
Janos Audron? The legendary vampire of ancient days? How was this transformation possible?
KAIN
But Janos is dead, his heart torn from his body.
JANOS
Not dead, but imprisoned in this place. My blood was needed to power the device, and feed the Mass within. Starved of blood and sapped of life, I devolved into that horrible creature. The moment you poisoned the Mass, I felt my strength return. That which is divine cannot be wholly suppressed.
KAIN
Divine? Your imprisonment has damaged your mind, Janos. The curse of vampirism is no mark of divinity.
JANOS
You must delve further back into history, Kain, to know the truth of our heritage. Long ago, and long before I first walked the earth, vampires were god-like, and our kind ruled the land. But we were opposed by another race, similar to ours in power, but different in method and intention. The wars between us flamed for a thousand years. But we prevailed at last, and we banished our enemies from the face of the earth by powerful magic, sealing them into another plane of existence.
KAIN
What has this history lesson to do with my task at hand?
JANOS
Patience, Kain. The race that fought the vampires was the Hylden, the very Hylden that you have just encountered. They control the Sarafan. They are striving to wipe out the vampires, enslave the humans, and reclaim all Nosgoth as their own. They are the evil that plague us once again, authors of the demons and the Device and all else that threatens the land. They have returned to enact a terrible revenge.
KAIN
I thought you said that they were banished.
JANOS
They were, Kain. But several centuries ago, one of the Hylden was able to return to our world. He then used his magic to draw other Hylden through, but had not yet the power to begin a full invasion. He required an army, here, and humans to drain of energy. He learned of a legendary order whose purpose was to purge the world of vampires long ago. He revived this order,and the Sarafan were born again.
KAIN
The Sarafan Lord. It was he that broke through. But how?
JANOS
Now we come to your part in this story. When you chose to destroy the Pillar of Balance, you caused a rift throughout the world, sufficient to breach through the dimensions.
KAIN (VO)
Was it I, then, who had engendered this war? No, I had been set, step by step, upon the path that led to this outcome. Hadn’t this all been a Hylden plot from the beginning? My mind reeled at the implications.
JANOS
It was in this way that the Sarafan Lord was able to enter the world, by building a magical gate. This is the Hylden Gate. Close this gate, Kain, and all the Hylden within Nosgoth will perish.
KAIN
The gate sustains their existence?
 JANOS
Precisely. It is their umbilical cord to the other world. When it is closed, they cannot dwell in our world.
KAIN
And so all the Hylden will die, and the Sarafan Lord, as one of them, dies as well. I see.
JANOS
Close the gate and kill the Sarafan Lord, Kain. Close the gate and shut the Hylden from the world once again.
KAIN
And how is this to be done?
JANOS
Let us go to Sanctuary. Vorador must be informed of all that has occurred, and a plan can be drawn to finish this, once and for all.
Janos casts a spell similar to Umah's teleportation spell, and they both teleport to Sanctuary.
Vorador and Umah stand in the shadows of Sanctuary. Other attendants are nearby.
UMAH
You should have sent me with him.
VORADOR
You were wounded.
UMAH
There is no way to know now where Kain has gone or what he is doing. Even you haven’t been able to contact him –
 Janos teleports into Sanctuary with Kain. Vorador turns, Umah (and the attendants) prepare to attack.
VORADOR
What's this?
(To Umah)
No – wait.
Do I dare believe my senses? Janos? My sire? They killed you…
JANOS
No. Far worse. But that is a story for another time.
KAIN
or there will be no time, for any of us. Vorador, we need your council.
UMAH
We were wondering where you were.
KAIN
I have been doing what I said I would do.
VORADOR
Kain, the Device?
KAIN
I have destroyed it. But we are now faced with a peril even greater than before.
VORADOR
How is this?
JANOS
The ancient history I will convey to you in a better hour, should any of us be so fortunate as to reach such a time. For this moment you must believe me when I tell you, your enemy – our great enemy, the Sarafan Lord, – is one of a people that come from another world. His plan, beyond all others, is to bring this enemy race back into this world, from which my kind, in another age, once banished them. He must be prevented, or all our kind will perish.
VORADOR
Sire, what must we do?
 JANOS
He has created a base in this world, the Hylden City, across the sea. There he has opened a Gate to bring his kind into our world. My plan was to teleport us to the Hylden City, and launch a final assault on the Sarafan Lord, but now I find there is some kind of shield of magic that prevents me. If we are to fight them, that shield must be destroyed.
KAIN
Vorador, where is the Hylden City? Have any of your spies brought you this knowledge?
VORADOR
Umah, what do you know of this?
UMAH
There has been, in the past months, enormous activity at the Wharves. Warships and freighters, loading and unloading in great secrecy. The few of our people who have infiltrated the area, and returned alive, have told me that the ships all seem to take the same course out of the harbor, but we do not know their destination.
JANOS
(To Kain)
It must be the Hylden City. Why else would there be such interest at this time? You must take a ship to the city at once. There, you must find and deactivate the shield, so whatever forces we can bring may come to your aid, and close the Gate for all time.
KAIN
(To Vorador)
Have someone show me to the Wharves. I will make my way aboard one of those ships that is about to sail. When I have deactivated the shield, I will contact you.
UMAH
I’m going with him.
VORADOR
But I will need you here –
UMAH
Sire, I know the Wharves. And where one may fail alone, two may succeed.
KAIN
I have no need of a guard at my back. You will find me perfectly competent for this task, I assure you.
UMAH
It is a chance we cannot afford to take. Not when all we have fought for is at stake.
JANOS
There is more at stake than you can imagine. Take help where it is offered, Kain.
VORADOR
It is settled. I will prepare our forces for the final attack.
(He holds out one hand to Umah.)
Go well, my child.
JANOS
Go well, both of you.
KAIN
"Take help where it is offered." Yet I have always found that help offered when not needed is usually no help at all.
|
