Ester had been a strange woman. It had been common practise that when children were born with defects into noble families they were left to die so as not to become a source of embarrassment. Lord of Coorhagen, the master of the household, had overruled the convention and Ester had been permitted to live, albeit out of general public sight. The act of charity had earned him scorn from his enemies for permitting a defective and praise from his political allies for such mercy.
Her portrait now brought Kain’s memories back through the flood gates he had erected in his mind to hold them at bay and it was if he was that boy again. Growing up he relied on her presence to shelter him from the machinations of his brothers who plotted and schemed how to get rid of each other to make themselves father’s soul heir.
She had not been disappointed when Kain had killed his younger brother Abel in order to secure a place of prominence but she had been melancholy and for that Kain had come to regret the action. Not for the murder of his brother but for making his sister unhappy.
During his human early adult life Kain had performed many tasks for her, journeying to distant towns and settlements to be her personal messenger and agent; arranging business deals and trade agreements. In fact, when he had been ambushed by brigands and murdered, he had come south at her behest, seeking a trader in the coastal town of Freeport.
Consumed by his quest for vengeance and caught up in the inner machinations of the Circle of Nine, he had forgotten her.
“Still as lovely as ever.” He remarked to the painting in a whimsical fashion. “I suppose if I were to search the grounds around Coorhagen I might even find your grave.”
The portrait did not reply.
The Vampire stared at it for a long drawn out moment before he let his shoulder relax with a regretful sigh. He turned from the painting without another word. He could stay no longer in this place or he would be drawn in and entrapped by his memories until the Sarafan garrison discovered him.
He was not that little boy anymore or the human who might be welcomed in this place for noble birth. He was the Scion of Balance and his destiny lay elsewhere.
Just as he was turning, he felt a sudden jolt across his right arm.
Glancing down sharply Kain beheld that the Nexus Stone he had attached to his gauntlet was emitting a soft, pale green glow. The Illumination was growing stronger as he watched, casting dark shadows over the walls.
.
“Strange. When I had carried the Nexus Stone on my mission to confront and destroy the Sarafan lord, the artefact had been passive, silent and only reacting when needed. Now it responded as if it had a will of its own, a purpose unknown to me.”
.
The light seemed to condense, pulling in around itself until it formed a beam that travelled from the stone iris of the artefact off towards Kain’s left. Kain followed the beam with his eyes and saw that it continued on out through a nearby window.
Carrying his right arm up to keep the stone level, he walked over to the window and stared out at the beam of light as it carried on.
It lanced over the rooftops, rising high and higher until it petered off towards the horizon, fading beyond his line of sight.
.
“I was directed in no uncertain terms towards the south east. To what end was still a mystery but I felt the keen edge of manipulation cutting into my destiny again. What game was this now?”
.
Kain frowned looking down at the stone, its light highlighting his face. This mysterious artefact was clearly much more significant then he had thought. He looked up at the light beam again, noting its direction pointing towards a stretch of mountains that framed the sky and travelled down towards the south. One such mountain was quite familiar, a flat topped plateau that had the appearance of having its peek cleaved off.
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“I had two options before me. I could follow the guiding of the stone to what might very well be a trap designed by my enemies or I could stay here, loosing myself in phantom memories of a life the world had never known. I choose the less dangerous path. I choose to go.”
.
Unlatching the window, Kain pushed it open and stepped out. In mid step and his body suspended in mid air, the vampire’s form dissolved into a flock of big black bats.
The flying rodents dispersed, becoming a thick cloud as they flew up high into the crisp night air; soaring high over the town of Coorhagen in moments and leaving it behind.
His consciousness spread over many small bodies in flight, Kain could observe the passage of the land as he travelled.
The valley in which Coorhagen nestled was one of the largest closed ravines in Nosgoth, sheltered both east and west by tall mountains that were almost like steep cliffs and backed by even taller mountains to the north. The land in between these natural barriers by now all under cultivation, small village farming communities huddled close in between the gaps of the patchwork of fields.
The weather was clearing now, the overcast clouds breaking apart to let little patches of the night sky show overhead. The wind died away and Kain’s bats could make good time without having to fight against it.
But with the wind died down the clear unmistakable sound of clinking metal over and over again came to the sharp attention of the flock’s pointed ears. The bats paused in their flight, their flock circling around in the sky while some of them flew down lower to see what had caused that noise.
There were people in the farming fields below, quite a few of them and they were all wearing thick plate armour.
His curiosity stirred, Kain directed his bats down to land in the ascent field. No human would think the presence of so many bats out in the wilderness at night would be anything out of the ordinary.
The bats came together again, hidden from view by the thick stacks of corn. The crop had already been taken in and the plants were all dead with the cold. Come spring the new growing season they’d be pulled up and used to fertilise the new crop. For now though they served as a cover for Kain’s body to solidify unseen.
Once he was whole again the vampire pushed his way through the dead plants until he could make out the figures ahead.
 It was a large group, more then thirty armed men them and they had their backs to him but he could see enough of them to recognise them easily enough as second era Sarafan.
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“The Hylden styled Sarafan pretenders were out in force in the wilderness, sweeping and searching although certainly not for me. Something else must have attracted their ire.”
.
He watched them comb the fields in a thin, beating at the dead corn with their swords, clearing a path through it all. Standing back from the searchers was a small group of soldiers with crossbows. The second era Sarafan had a strange custom where soldiers trained for long range weapons such as longbows or cross bows were women; their armour much lighter and form fitting then those of the men trained to do the brunt work.
“It couldn’t have gone far.” One of them was saying, another of the soldiers in thick armoured and armed with a huge curved axe. “The first man to spot its tracks gets to keep the pelt.” At the encouraging promise of reward the pseudo Sarafan began to hack faster, some of them breaking off into independent groups to forage for themselves.
Kain had wondered briefly if they had been searching for him but they could not have found the bodies in Coorhagen that quickly. Also, he did not have any ‘pelt’ that could be taken.
Suddenly one of the more distant Sarafan gave a yelp of surprise and pain and disappeared, his body yanked into the dead corn with a loud rattle of metal followed by a loud feral growl.  
A dozen Sarafan made for that position, calling for others to follow. There was a short scream followed by a hideous tearing noise and Kain could smell the scent of fresh blood in the air.
The dismembered compose of the disappeared Sarafan was thrown, flying in chunks, out of the corn field to smash into the hastily raised arm shields of his still living comrades.
“Is this all you can do?” A voice that was more a growl asked from the crops, corn rustling as something of considerable size moved through them. Its speed was considerable, allowing it to close the distance with the Sarafan before they had a chance to react.
A clawed hand covered in red fur burst out from the cover, black claws raking through armour as if it were parchment and cleaving flesh from bone. Two pseudo Sarafan went down, their chests ripped open with blood and gore flying out to coat the ground.
“Is that it?!”
The creature burst out of concealment, vaulting itself through the air; a feral lupine form with long arms that swept through the soldiers like a scythe, knocking three of them down with a loud clatter. The men fell with agonized screams, great claws puncturing their armour and stabbing into their chests.
The wolf form of a lycanthrope was comparable to Kain’s own feral state only with some differences. While in wolf form the vampire walked on four legs like the animal they were embodying.
The lycanthrope had a far more human shape, travelling for the most part on its hind legs and slumped forward; fore limbs ending in clawed hands.
The added forward weight enabled the Lycanthrope to run fast, quicker then human’s were used to reacting. A few Sarafan raised their swords and charged the creature, slicing and stabbing and its back and hind quarters.
“Thick armour, big swords and no brains!”  It snarled, whipping around to face them. The beast leapt forward and landed on top of one of them, pinning him to the ground to massive claws hands. “Stop wasting my time!” With a sharp tug the Lycanthrope tore the mans arms off, flinging the ripped limbs off to either side.
The commander of the pseudo Sarafan had stayed clear of the fighting and showed no evident concern over the loss of so many of his men, in fact he seemed quite pleased. The human turned to make a commanding gesture to his crossbow soldiers and Kain realised why he appeared so calm. He had sent in men in there as bait to lure the Lycanthrope out, sacrificing them to give his crossbows a clear shot.
Kain acted then, racing through the field of dead corn and reaching out with his left hand.
His telekinetic abilities, augmented by the Serioli gauntlet he wore; burst forth in a powerful shockwave that sent the crossbow women soldiers scattering, flung from their surprised feet several yards before they crashed into the ground. The commander, startled by such an unexpected interruption draw his massive axe in reflex.
Kain closed on them quickly, grabbing his arm in his talon’s grip and pulling back sharply. His strength was sufficient to rip the man’s entire forearm right off, blood flying out to speckle the snow.
The scream was silenced when the vampire punched him in the jaw with enough force to knock his head back with a loud crack, the man’s neck snapped. His weapon fell from his hand and collapsed to the ground, the body following a moment after.
Stepping over the corpse the vampire set into the women with their crossbows, felling them with swift slashes of his talons. Several of them managed to get several bolts off in his direction but in their confusion they missed by large gaps. Clearly these were not front rank troops, sent to a quiet border settlement region because no other more experienced men were available.
Kain did not have any trouble with them but he felt all too keenly the absence of a hilt between his hands and longed for the comforting present of the Reaver in his grasp once more.
Once the last of them had been killed and left to bleed out in the snow, Kain turned to regard the Lycanthrope. Sure enough now that he could observe it without distraction, he recognised it as that one called Ewoden who had been fighting at Raziel’s side when they had reencountered each other before they had escaped Fanum-Divus.
The beast was gnawing on a severed arm it was holding in one hand, chewing on it like a dog with a bone. When it spotted Kain, it lowered the meat and raised its head to look directly at him; ears flicking up alertly.
“I take it then that you are not impressed by the soldiers of this era.” The Vampire remarked dryly.
The Lycanthrope snorted, its breath coming out in a thick cloud of white mist.
“I spent centuries fighting and outwitting the home garrison of Fanum-Divus.” It growled, gnashing the words in its mouth.
The beast shivered all over and slowly began to shrink, his mass shrinking in upon itself and the fur receding back into the skin. Within a few moments he had become a man once more, naked in the cold.
“These men are child’s play.” Ewoden remarked, pausing to spit out blood and then wipe his mouth with the back of his hand.
“Have you seen Raziel?” Kain asked quickly. If Ewoden had been landed relatively close to himself then there was a good chance that Raziel was nearby as well.
“No.” The Lycanthrope emissary said, much to his disappointment. “I searched but I hadn’t found any scents I recognised.”
He paused to look around as if only taking true note of his surroundings just then, an expression of baffled confusion making his eyebrows knit. He seemed now oblivious to the carnage around them the corpses of their enemies already forgotten, his eyes fixed on the horizon turning his head slowly from right to left to survey it all.
“This… is Nosgoth?” He said it with a tone that gave Kain the impression that if it was, it did not live up to his expectations. The vampire knew the feeling.
“Yes it is.” He said with a weary resigned voice. Nosgoth’s state slowly decayed more and more and so it would never live to the expectations held by rose tinted memories.
The Emissary’s lips bent with his frown and dissatisfaction was clear in his eyes. He spat again, this time discharging bits of bone mixed with blood and saliva.
“Then I will travel with you a while longer then.” He said, causing Kain to blink in momentary confusion. The Emissaries expression was stern and set as if he head made up his mind and would not be dissuaded.
“I have no need of a travelling companion or a guard at my back.” The vampire said dismissively, making a cutting gesture with one hand.
“Aye.”  Ewoden remarked with a slight grin, looking around now noting all the bodies. “So it’s a good thing I don’t intend to be either one.”  
The emissaries face took on a more series expression and he appeared focused now, resigned but burdened. When he looked at Kain and saw the vampire’s raised eyebrow, he added;
“My second oath has yet to be fulfilled and accompanying either you or your little blue friend might very well help me do it.”
Kain remembered his first oath had been killing Ambraxas-Divus and eating his heart and that it had been only the first of three set tasks that he needed to perform and to his knowledge had been elaborated upon.
“And what prey tell is this second oath?” The vampire asked tilting his head to one side. Ewoden slowly drew in his breath.
“Simplicity itself.” He said. “I have to find a home.”