The clan banner came down from the wall with the tearing sound of ripping fabric. Dumah held the stained clothe with the symbol of his fallen brother before him, a smile of intense satisfaction creasing his toughened face.
Over the past two centuries since Raziel had disappeared into the swirling waters of the abyss, Dumah’s own dark gifts had started to evolve separately from either his father or his brothers. He had grown tough almost armoured skin and his skills with telekinesis had advanced enough so that he could now wind bands of energy around physical objects, including people.
It had surprised all of them when, as the remaining five clan leaders had started to evolve gifts of their own, Kain did not come to rain fiery retribution down upon them for daring to do so. It pleased Dumah no end that Raziel it seemed would be the only one to suffer such for what seemed a natural process.
With the clinking of armour, one of his legion commanders stepped in through the door of the broken building they were using as a command post. He saluted, carrying his helmet in his other arm; a red drape with the emblem of his clan woven in gold down his right hand side.
“The last of clan-less have been routed out and burned, my lord.” He said with his head held high.
Dumah crossed to the window and looked out at the still burning city of the Razielim. Thick clouds of smoke were rising from the shattered and broken ruins of his brothers once proud and strong fortress.
“Excellent.” Dumah said, arms folded behind his back. “Then their stain has finally been cleansed from the empire.” He turned and gestured to his commander “Go forth and let the legions know of the final victory.”
“At once.” The commander said and turned to leave.
“And begin preparations for the colonisation of the forfeit lands.” Dumah added quickly and with insistence before the vampire could leave. The commander bowed low.
“Yes Lord, Dumah.” He said and left. Dumah paused to listen and his smile broadened at the cheers the Dumahim legions gave up from outside. They had earned their blood toast this night.
“Do not get ahead of yourself, my brother.” A raspy voice from the far side of the room said, cutting into his pleasant thoughts. Dumah turned to look back over his shoulder.
“Lets not forget that a portion of the lands to the south belong to the Zephonim.” Sitting in a polished wooden chair, one of the few pieces of furniture that escaped damage in the siege, was his younger brother Zephon.
While Dumah had grown bulkier and more heavily muscled, Zephon had developed in just the opposite way.
He was very tall now and his limbs seemed almost emaciated. He wasn’t stick thin but there was an insect like quality to his body. He sat cross legged even on such a comfortable chair, as if that was the only posture he could assume while sitting.
The Dumahim legions, and Dumah himself, wore polished black armour and carried heavy swords and axes. The Zephoim on the other hand were light skirmishes and preferred ranged weapons such as crossbows and light armour made of leather. Zephon wore such a garment and at close range it was easy to tell the leather was made from human remains.
“You’ve hardly let me forget that throughout this entire campaign.” Dumah said with a snort. If it had been feasible he would much have preferred to have undertaken the operations with his forces alone but the Razielim, even without a clan leader, had outnumbered his own army. In order to take the city he had needed additional soldiers.
“If I ever did you’d pretend we never had that arrangement and take all our fallen brother’s land for yourself.” Zephon said, tilting his head to one side. His sharp features were almost skeletal now and in the very faint light of dawn he appeared almost ghoulish.
Dumah spat off into one corner and began to turn his thoughts to the defence of his new territory. The Melchiahim would certainly try to take advantage of the chaos to take land and perhaps even the bullying Turelim. Garrisons would have to be built and maintained.
Suddenly there was a shout from outside followed by a loud and thunderous detonation. The ground trembled slightly and the two clan leaders looked at each other in perplexity.
Dumah made for the door. Before he reached it the barrier crashed open, flying past him to smash into the far wall.
“What have you done?!” Standing there in the doorway, eyes blazing in white fury, was the Emperor.
“Father!” Dumah began, taking a stunned step back. Even Zephon had burst out of his chair.
Kain strode towards them both, fists clenched at his sides; a picture of complete indignation.
“I return from my Mountain Retreat to find the lands of the Razielim in flames and the legions of the Dumahim and the Zephonim celebrating in the ruins!” He snapped, fangs bared at them. Their eyes flicked from him to the hilt protruding over his right shoulder, the hilt of the dreaded Soul Reaver; the one blade all vampires in the empire respected and feared. “The bodies of my first born son’s children lie scattered like discarded faeces!”
Kain had not drawn the Reaver yet but he was clearly in the mood where he might very well do just that.
“Answer my question!” He demanded of them. “What have you done!?”
Dumah was the first to recover some of his bravado and stiffened under the Emperor’s harsh accusatory glare.
“The Razielim were an affront to your rule, Father!” He said but did not quite meet his eye. “They spread dissention and rebellion amongst the other clans. They incited riots.”
Perhaps given courage by Dumah’s example, Zephon stepped to his brother’s side.
“With no clan leader they are only one step above humans and thus have no rights in the empire.” He said and Dumah nodded sharply in agreement.
“They needed to be put down like the stray animals they were.” The elder sibling concluded.
Kain stared at them, eyes wide and lips pressed tightly together. Silence dragged on for perhaps a minute before, which is body trembling in rage, he began to speak.
“You blind, self important, misguided fools!” The Emperor hissed. “You can not understand the harm you have done to the Empire this day!”
The two of them wore identical expressions of confusion at his statement. With a snarl of disgust Kain turned from them, his imperial drape and long white hair trailing out behind him.
“This is the start of it, the decline of our twilight.” He said in a subdued tone, tinged with dismay. “When we are reduced to cannibalistic murder of our fellow vampires, the devolution is not far behind.”
Dumah bristled at his words and indignantly he snorted.
“You say it makes us weak if we purge the undesirable elements from our society?” He asked and looked around at the shattered room in which they stood. “Just the opposite!”
Kain glared at him from over his shoulder but Dumah was not deterred and carried on talking.
“Raziel’s traitorous bloodlines have been erased. Such a cleansing will do nothing but good to the faithful.”
With a snarl, Kain swung around and grabbed Dumah by the chest guard of his armour. With a sharp push he shoved his son against the wall and held him there. His free hand went back to grip the hilt of the claymore strapped across his back.
“You had no authority to make that decision!” He spat, fuming with rage. Zephon stayed perhaps still, watching them with an emotionless face but a great anxiety in his eyes; perhaps wondering if he should use the opportunity to slip away.
“All vampires in the empire belong to me!” Kain told the startled Dumah who by now only had eyes for the hand around the Soul Reaver’s hilt. “I allow you to hold your clans only at my sufferance!”
The Emperor’s muscled tensed and he almost seemed ready to draw the blade. If he did, Dumah’s fate was sealed.
“With no clan leader to hold them, the Razielim reverted to my thraldom. They were MY chattel!”
He held Dumah there for a long silent moment and then he let him drop, standing away from them.
He looked from Zephon to Dumah and did not let either of them out of his sight.
“As such I should hold you both personally responsibility for the destruction of my property.”
He didn’t wait for them to reply but stormed out, leaving them both to wallow in whatever meagre and transitory victory they thought they had won. He could say nothing to them or make them understand why they had sealed their own doom. They would learn in time of their own folly but whether they would realise they had dammed themselves, even when the time came, was still to be seen.
Instead he immediately travelled south west, past the Sanctuary of the Clans to the valleys and ravines that lined the western coast. Nestled in one such ravine was the Abby, once a human settlement and now seized by the Rahabim.
Translocating himself inside the main chamber, Kain found that it had been flooded with diverted river water; hardly surprisingly as the Emperor had only just received word of Rahab’s newest evolutionary adaption and past on in large part to the rest of his clan.
“Rahab!” He called out into the chamber, standing on the top of a stone pillar and watching the dark waters.
He did not have to wait long. A slender dark shape a little longer then the length of a man, swum across the floor of the flooded chamber. It paused and then shot like an arrow up to land with grace on another nearby stone pillar.
“Lord Kain, my father, you honour me with your visit.”
Rahab’s alterations in the past few centuries had been the most pronounced. His talons were webbed with translucent skin and gills stood out on his neck. Spreading back from the top of his head was a frill very reminiscent of a cobra’s hood, small by now but it was growing with each passing year.
“Do not stand on ceremony, there is too much to discuss.” Kain told him, noting with concealed sadness that Rahab’s once handsome face was being distorted; the lips pulling back to the corners of his cheeks like a snake.
His son crouched there but at full attention. In these troubling times he was the only one in the council that Kain could rely on for impartial judgement and sound reasoning. 
“The legions of the Dumahim and Zephonim invaded the Razielim clan territory.” He told him and Rahab stiffened, eyes widening at the news.
“Where there any survivors?” He asked, his voice gurgling due to air escaping through his gills.
Kain shook his head.
“Not so much as a fledgling.” He said. “I searched myself.”  
Rahab was quiet but his eyes never left Kain’s. There was a sad sort of hopeless in that gaze that broke Kain’s heart.
“Then it’s begun.” He said slowly and took a moment to collect himself, running a webbed hand over his face.
To face destiny with such courage… Kain wondered why all his sons could not have Rahab’s spirit and integrity.
“You appear dismayed.” His son observed. “You said this would happen.” Kain nodded and let his shoulders slump.
“A calamity to befall the clan of Raziel, yes, but not of this scale.” He lamented. “I had hoped to preserve at least a handful of his bloodlines. They would have been invaluable bargaining chips.”
For an illogical moment he was severely tempted to go back and stake the both Zephon and Dumah out for human vampire hunters to find.
“But Dumah’s zeal has robbed me of any early hope of negotiation when Raziel returns.” He concluded sadly and looked at his son. “I’m sorry Rahab, but I can not shield you from him.”
Rahab turned to look into the water, his eyes distant. Kain followed his gaze and he could see that deep down in the water were small dark shapes swimming about. They had human form and from the way Rahab smiled at seeing them Kain supposed they had to be Rahabim fledglings; already immune to water’s touch.
“I would be lying if I said I was resigned to that fate.” He said but without much conviction. “I will fight him with every intention of winning.”
“As will the others.” Kain said absently, watching the fledgling below swim. They were silent for some time, watching the water below.
“And the clans?” Rahab asked eventually. “When the clan leaders are killed what happens to them?”
Kain did not say anything at first and then slowly turned to regard him.
“I can promise you nothing.” He said almost dismally. “Returned to find his children destroyed, Raziel might take vengeance by taking the lives of yours.”
Rahab’s cobra hood bristled and there was concern clear on his face.
“I would not see that happen.” He stated. Kain straightened and folded his arms over his chest.
“Sacrifices must be made if we are to see Nosgoth restored and the Pillars returned to out governorship.” He said and Rahab did not meet his eye. They had spoken much on this already along with what needed to be done.
“But no more than absolutely necessary.” Rahab blinked and hen looked up at the Emperor in surprise.
Kain set his features and took in a deep breath.
“I want it understood that from now that the Razielim were exterminated under my direct orders.” Rahab’s eyes widened to near overalls, a very strange look with his fish like face.  “No one else was responsible but me. You will advise your brothers of this. I alone will be held to account.”
Rahab opened his mouth as if to say something but words failed him. He obviously understood the sacrifice his sire was making and seemed stunned by it.
“Raziel will never listen to you if he believes that!” He said.
Kain shook his head.
“No Rahab.” He corrected him. “It will simply require more effort on my part to persuade him.” 
Perhaps centuries later, Raziel heard this story with a mixture of regret, shame and indignation.
.
“When I had seen Kain and the Nexus Stone together something had clicked inside me, making me want this answer, right here and now.  “
.
Kain stood there, grim faced at the end of his tale and waiting for a response from Raziel. Ewoden was looking between them speculatively. The blue wraith was silent, looking down dismally at the stone in his grasp.
.
“I had always assumed Kain had had my clan destroyed as punishment for my daring to evolve before him. Now that I knew he had executed me not out of spite but out of necessity, my curiosity about that extermination had flared. I listened to Kain’s story without comment, reserving any judgemental thoughts for after he had finished.  It left me feeling numb and tired inside.”
.
Finally the silence had dragged on long enough.
“There Raziel, you have my account.” Kain stated, his voice echoing. He raised one hand and then slapped it down again. “Whether or not you choose to believe me is entirely your own affair.”
At this Raziel looked up.
.
“Did I believe him? It would be easy to blame someone else in hindsight.”
.
It would serve Kain’s interest to lie to him, he supposed. He could not afford to have Raziel’s enmity especially not now.  His eyes focused on the stone and in it presence was both his potential destruction and the possible salvation for them all.
.
“But did it matter anymore? My children were dead and it was time to let even their memory go.”
.
“Now are we done chewing old soup?” Kain demanded, urged on by the sound of pursuit drawing ever closer. Soon the full force of Fanum-Divus would crash down upon them.
Raziel straightened, standing fully erect. He held that pose for a long moment and then he relaxed, letting all the doubts and regrets flow out of him with it. For better or for worse his clan had died and no account was going to change it.
“Yes...” He breathed and handed over the stone. “Yes we’re done.”