“I floated to the surface of a sea of pain and burning unconsciousness a bloated corpse slowly returning to life.”
.
When Kain opened his eyes his vision was blurred, swimming as if he was seeing the world around him from underwater. He could hear sounds but alone distant, as if they were distant echoes in a cave. He lay there and let his body slowly recover by itself, not forcing the issue and risk provoking another attack.
He blinked and slowly but surely his sight cleared and he found himself staring at the arched black stone ceiling high above. One by one his other senses seemed to return and clarify, pieces of the puzzling filling themselves in.
He was back in the main hall of Malek’s bastion. He could feel the cold air around him and the sense of others nearby.
.
“That attack was by far the worse I had endured thus far. Some time had obviously passed since I had fallen.”
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With a grunt the vampire hoisted himself up into a sitting position. As he half suspected, he was indeed back in the courtyard where the old man had set his campfire, the embers of the flames being fed by Ewoden from the far side with twigs and other small bits of gathered material. The long dark shadows all around them gave testament to the late hour. It had stopped snowing by now but the air was still bitterly cold.
Ezekiel was huddled into a corner with his clock drawn up about him even though he was right next to the fire, his face pale and set with eyes locked on the floor.
Kain paused to flex different parts of his body, testing the strength and reflexes. He had been severely weakened by that attack. Each one he suffered made him progressively weaker, as if sapping away his endurance. If they continued eventually he would not be able to recover at all.
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“For the moment I was unhindered but still the need for me to find out why I was suddenly now prone to these attacks and to find a solution to them was all encompassing. Somehow, I felt that the answer lay here so close I could almost put my hand upon it.”
.
Glancing down he saw that the Nexus Stone was still strapped to his wrist, its surface gleaming in the fire light that sprung up again.
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“I was close... but I was also running out of time.”
.
Ewoden had noticed him rise but had said nothing, continuing to feed the fire until it could burn on its own without constant feeding.
“How long have I been unconscious?” Kain asked, his voice echoing in the cavernous hall as he managed to get back up somewhat stiffly onto one knee. His sense of balance had not completely returned yet. The emissary’s eyes flicked up to him and then back down at the fire.
“Six hours.” He replied. Kain absorbed that slowly and let his mind adjust to the sudden change of elapsed time. “I didn’t know what else to do so I carried you back here.” 
It took the vampire a moment to run through recent memory to remember what had happened. He had seen the underground lecturing chamber and had collapsed before that display, the one showing what had appeared to be the creation of the Nexus Stone.
While it confirmed the fact that the stone had been made here and by the Hylden he was still no closer to discovering its purpose or nature. But there had to be more to learn in the ancient ruins below the Bastion. It was imperative that he get back down there at once.
Kain got back to his feet and happened to glance over at the old human. It was then he noticed that Ezekiel was not just cold but breathing shallowly and his eyes held some measure of pain.
“Old man, what ails you?” He asked, not wanting any surprises. Ezekiel coughed to clear his throat and sat up a little straighter.
“S...same thing that ails you I think.” He replied in a voice he was obviously fighting to keep level and neutral. The old man placed a hand very lightly upon his chest. “My heart’s not as strong as i...it used to be. I get little flutters now and then.”
Kain’s frown deepened and he looked at the old man with new interest. He was no fool to ignore unlikely coincidence, that the old man would just happen to have difficulties of the heart at the same time he did?
He pushed the thought away. Perhaps having dealt with Moebius and his manipulating ilk for so long he had become paranoid about such things. How is it strange that old men would have bodily difficulties? It was the most natural thing in the world.
Still the old man’s presence kept unnerving him so he determined not to indulge his paranoia and get to work.
“We must get back down there immediately.” He told Ewoden. The werewolf looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
“You have the endurance?” He asked. Kain snorted derisively in response.
“Don’t insult me.” The vampire stated and walked on towards the large archway that led out into the courtyard. “There is still so much to learn.”
Behind him, Ezekiel raised an eyebrow and a managed a weak smile
“Learning is good.” The old man said with a nod. Grunting he managed to get up to his feet and his old bones creaked audibly as he did so. “I approve of learning.” Kain paused to look back over his shoulder incredulously as Ezekiel made to follow him, walking steady if a bit lopsidedly.
Ezekiel paused at Kain’s incredulous look and regarded it with a stare of his own.
“Don’t give me that look, vampire.”He said in a disarming fashion. “I’m old and on my last legs. If I’m going to die I’d like to do it while looking at something interesting.” The old man paused and cocked his head with a quizzical expression. “You have found something interesting?”
Kain was silent for a long protracted moment before he turned away.
“Interesting enough.” He replied and walked off. “Don’t fall behind; I’m not coming back for you.”
The door behind Malek’s throne was still wide open and the path down to the hidden chambers clear.  Kain descended as fast as he could walk, not running but swiftly proceeding as fast as was safe for his body in its tender state.
Ewoden kept up with the pace he set without difficulty and surprisingly Ezekiel did as well, stumbling occasionally but not slowing until they reached the point looking out at the colossal statue of the Hylden noble that stood inside the main shaft.
 The tunnels below were easily accessed again and this time Kain began a methodical search, allowing Ewoden to venture off to explore side tunnels and corridors. As a lycanthrope he had a better sense of location and could cover ground quicker.
Kain stuck to exploring the main corridor and ignoring the side exits, letting the tunnel lead him on. Ezekiel followed him, always keeping a prudent distance but remaining within Kain’s line of sight. The old man’s casual and neutral acceptance of the mountains hidden interior was strange. It was as if he simply didn’t care that it was here.
He also seemed pretty endurable for an elderly man with heart difficulties.
The tunnel dipped at a very slight angle, curving around the main central shaft like a snail shell. As it carried on the walls and floor became progressively smoother, the panels and sheets of metal becoming larger and larger until finally it was all one piece as if the entire corridor had been forged from one piece of metal.
Kain’s pace slowed and he looked around him, a frown creasing his face.
This deeper into the ruins he went there was a pervading sense of ‘wrongness’ , as if somehow his presence here was an alien force in a place that was inimical to outside interference. He felt like a piece of metal in a festering wound, sinking into the bloody tissue.  It was not a pleasant sensation.
If Kain were to try and put what he was sensing into words, then he might say that it felt like being very close to a site of great anguish and suffering, where the lives of many had been spent all had once and was leaving a disturbing echo.
Even Ezekiel, who was maintaining a discreet distance, appeared apprehensive although his withered human senses could never hope to pick up the trembles of agony Kain felt in the air. The Nexus Stone on Kain’s arm however remained unhelpfully quiet and dull.
Suddenly Ewoden emerged from a side room, his mass receding back upon itself as it morphed back to human form.
“Something of note?” Kain asked him. The emissary scratched the back of his head, twisted and stretched until a bone snapped somewhere along his spine. The tension in his back relieved he looked the vampire full on.
“I am no judge on such things.” He replied but his expression spoke volumes. Kain motioned for him to lead the way and the lycanthrope turned and gestured for them to follow him. Ezekiel took up the rear without comment.
The room Ewoden led them too was not far and that sense of intrusion only deepened as Kain drew near and entered it.
The room had metallic buttresses holding up a high vaulted ceiling, running back towards a far wall. The acoustics of the room did not grab Kain’s immediate attention however all his had been directed onto the suits of armour standing in rows throughout the room.
.
“I had already been inclined to believe Malek a thief, stealing Hylden secrets. This was the final piece of evidence to confirm it.”
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They were of far more recent make then this fortress for Kain recognised their make. They were Sarafan sets of armour, their chest and battle standard completely unmistakable. They were not all the same suit either. Some held axes, others swords and even some with old bows. The isolated position had kept them all remarkably free of rust. Walking through them was very much like walking through a sleeping army. The foreboding and illogical feeling of them watching was very strong.
Just like everywhere else in this ruin there was no dust and the army seemed almost new and in pristine condition.
.
“The suits of armour in stood lines as if as if freshly mass produced, perhaps still awaiting the soul of an unwitting Sarafan warrior to be shoved inside them. Malek’s cruelty and hypocrisy were deliciously potent indeed.”
.
So this was where Malek had experimented with the machines and then harnessed the smaller generators above? Kain had no doubt of that now. The mysterious nature of Mortanious’ worktable here however still loomed large and in turn upon the nature of the so called ‘magic’ of the circle of nine. Could it have all been simply left over technology from Hylden and the Ancient vampires? If so that made the guardians even more the charlatans he had suspected them to be.
Ewoden led them through the army of standing metal, weaving through the ranks of armour to the far end of the room. The lycanthrope stopped there and gestured up at the wall, which now that Kain’s attention had been drawn to it he saw that it was no wall at all.
It was divided down the middle from ceiling to floor in the dead centre. Directly in the centre was an engraved image in the metal, buffed and embossed. It was the face of that same Hylden nobleman they had seen throughout the ruin, staring back at them with a grim expression.
“It’s obviously a door.” Ewoden remarked, laying a hand against its surface. “But I see no means of opening it.”
Kain frowned and looked at the door for a long moment. His instincts told him something important lay beyond. He raised the stone and looked from it to the door and back. This may be where the stone had been guiding him to go.
Looking around he saw that to either side of the door were two pedestals with long elaborate switches to turn mechanical gears atop each one. Four in all they ringed the door in a semi circle facing inward. Alongside each door towards these pedestals were several niches in the wall, in which sat metallic plates engraved with some of the images Kain had seen throughout this ruin already. They had captions underneath in the Hylden language, probably descriptions of each scene.
Investigating the switches, Kain found them to be stiff from disuse and requiring some force in order to move them.
When the vampire pushed one down, there was a loud audible shunt from beneath his feet and the unmistakable sound of hidden gears turning. With a groan of protest the nearest of the metallic plates set into the niches retracted back sharply into the wall and then spun away; replaced by another plate with a different picture engraved into it.
Ewoden regarded the device with a thoughtful expression.
“A locking device?” He supposed.
“Apparently so.” Kain replied. “It seems to me that the door will open if we solve the puzzle.”
The lycanthrope frowned.
“A cumbersome mechanism for keeping out intruders.”
“But effective.”
Ezekiel was looking at the new plate that had swung into place, tracing the outlines of the image with his wrinkled hand. The new image showed that same picture Kain had seen in the lecturing chamber, the one with the Nexus stone drawing in extruded essences of Hylden.
“The king who holds the stone of the damned souls.” He muttered as if to himself. Kain turned and looked at him sharply.
“What did you say?” the vampire asked with some annoyance. “You can read it?” Ezekiel blinked and turned back to them looking a little whimsical.
“Wouldn’t that be something?” He asked rhetorically. “But I believe the pictures tell a story.” Kain kept his eyes on the old man now, his earlier vague suspicion fanned into a full-fledged certainty that Ezekiel was far more then he pretended to be.
However the old human had a point. Now that Kain’s attention was drawn to it, the various plates in the niches did seem to be telling the same story. They were depicting events that took place but they were out of order, some set before others that shouldn’t be.
Kain realised that Ezekiel was right. These plates had to be set in chronological sequence.  He approached the plates and looked at each of them in turn.
“This Hylden...”  He began, pointing towards a picture of that same nobleman. “He was their king.” He pulled on the corresponding lever and the slate swung away, changing its position with another and became the first in the sequence.
Kain’s mind worked quickly, putting the story together in his own mind from what he had observed to get to this point and pulled on another lever.
“He took the souls of those of his people killed in the ancient war between my kind and theirs.”  He said as another picture came into place. “And forged them into a stone.”
The third plate showing that very forging swung into place.
“The Nexus Stone.”
The final picture to be put in sequence was an image of the Nexus Stone itself, surrounded by the image of a skull. Once it had slotted into place, the machinery hidden in the walls shuddered and moaned loudly.
.
“As if confirming my translation of their fable the spirit of the long dead Hylden who had lived here gave away their final secrets and permitted me entry to their core chamber.”
.
The door protested as being forced to give way but yielded eventually and swung inwards, grating upon the floor with sparks illuminating the darkness.
The chamber beyond was shaped like a hexagon with six curving sides. At the edges of each of the six walls stood stone pillars holding up the metal ceiling above. Directly over the centre of the room there was a grill leading up into shaft that lanced directly up. Below this was a platform engraved with a strange sort of symbol that Kain didn’t recognise; a sort of inverted ‘V’ shape with many decorative runes added down its sides.
Arranged directly in front and to either side the remaining five of the chambers six walls were strange creations that looked odd even here.
They were slanted devices made of bronze but shaped like the tops of Hylden heads, the green emotionless eyes staring forward towards the centre of the room.  The tips of their noses met the floor and the tops of their crests merged into the device behind the decorative face and continued up to meet the ceiling. All five of these heads had their eyes rolled upwards.
But Kain could see more than just the room’s appearance. This chamber was the centre of it, the eye of that storm of agony he had felt brewing down here. In this room sufficient pain and torment had been induced to allow its echo to remain.
The vampire’s left arm began to tingle and instinctively he raised it up, holding up before his gaze the Nexus Stone.
The jewel was emitting a deep sickly emerald glow, stronger then before and bathing the chamber in its light. A shaft of stronger light lanced forth from its centre and moved across the floor. Slowly but surely it moved until it highlighted the centre of the chamber in the sight of the five head like devices.
In the centre of the room, perhaps responding to the light and presence of the Nexus Stone, the decorative pattern peeled away from its epicentre forming a circular hole directly in the middle. Out of this hole rose a pedestal, no wider then a man’s waist with a slanted top surface facing towards the entrance. There was just enough space in this surface to have a slot, purposely shaped like the Nexus Stone. The light from the stone itself was directing itself towards this very spot.
“Is this it?” Kain asked without realising he was speaking. “Which soul inside this stone is calling me here?”