Ba’al chuckled as if amused by the expression of annoyance on Kain’s face.
“Quite the woman is she not?” He asked, his lips twitching as if he wanted to laugh.
“Indeed.” Kain replied sullenly.
Ba’al took a moment to regain himself and then his expression turned quite serious.
“I suppose you find it strange that I hold one of her race in such high regard?” He asked rhetorically.
Kain glanced sidelong at him.
“It does seem slightly aberrant.” He said half musing. “Especially considering the fact that you were the one who created the very Pillar’s that bind her race to that… other place.”
Ba’al blinked and tilted his head back.
“Do you believe that is all that the Pillar’s do?” He asked actually sounding surprised. “Oh no the banishment of the Hylden Race was essential for many reasons but the divine purpose of the Pillars extends far beyond that.” The Guardian uncrossed his arms and ran a hand over his face. “The Pillars pierce the earth and the sky, with no beginning or end. They hold two forces that govern this world in Balance.”
He turned then and gestured to a side table, upon which left scrawled many parchments and documents. Drawn upon them were diagrams, sketches and drafts of nine straight columns with a base halfway down their length.
Could these be Ba’al’s own preliminary designs for the Pillar’s themselves? Their very blue prints? Kain moved over to examine them more closely.
“The Pillars pierce the earth and the sky, with no beginning or end. They hold two forces that govern this world in Balance.” Ba’al carried on as Kain inspect each document. There were various notations made at the side of each diagram but written in a strange sort of language he was unfamiliar with. He had not seen these runes in ruins left by either the Vampires or the Hylden.
“This paradox of stone came to me through her, between us we focused the concept into concrete thought and design.”
Kain snorted, still looking over the papers.
“And do you tell me now that it was the Seer who created the Pillars?” He asked. At this Ba’al rolled his eyes.
“Hardly.” He said feigned an actual surprised look. “Why would she create that which binds her people to hell itself?” He shook his head and folded his arms across his chest. “I made the Pillars, banished them and declared their memory erased and their name to be Unspoken.”
Kain looked up from the documents frowning at the Guardian in profound disapproval of such ignorance.
“And doing so you lay the foundations for your own downfall.” He said bleakly. “The Hylden will be forgotten as you wish, but they will not forget themselves.” He laid the document he was holding back down on the table. “The people of Nosgoth, clad in their ignorance, will be defenseless against their eventual and inevitable return.”
Ba’al did not seem as shocked at this intelligence as well he might.
“Of course they will. I never intended the Binding to be eternal.” He said with an indifferent shrug. “In the relative short term they had to be banished, for both our sake and theirs.”
Kain stared at him incredulously.
“For their sake?” He repeated. “Do you imagine that they would agree with you that your sentence of damnation was for their own good?”
“Do you think me simple? Of course not… but consider Scion, what would their fate be if they remained in Nosgoth?” The Guardian gestured around to the images on the walls that Kain had not taken much notice of, dulled as they were. Ba’al had not taken care of them but they still showed imagery of vampire warriors doing battle with grounded Hylden foot soldiers.  
As with most other vampire murals, these images left out a great deal of the blood and violence at the Hylden murals included and lionized the winged race over their rivals.
“Our people would have eventually hunted them down and killed them all, down to their last juvenile.” Ba’al turned away and Kain saw that he had purposely let the images fade as he had no desire to look at them. “To ensure the survival of their species, they had to be removed. But having bound their life forces to the demon dimension to give themselves immortality it was the only place I could send them.”
Kain was unmoved.
“Within that realm they will go insane.” He said bluntly.  
“But they will live.” Ba’al pointed out, un-looping one arm to raise a talon. “That is the best I can do for them.” Kain looked from Ba’al to the documents laid out on the table with a curious expression folding his features into a squinting frown.
“You are perhaps the most asinine and counter productive humanitarian I have ever come across, Ba’al.” He commented. “Do the others know how you regard the Hylden and their banishment?”
Ba’al frowned.
“No and I will keep it that way.” The Guardian declared. “Too many of our people are infected by their own sense of superiority and could not accept the Hylden or what the were becoming.” Again Kain looked confused at this. “They were challenging us for supremacy in more than one respect. Religious commandment was simply the excuse many needed to begin a war of extermination.”
-
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“And now I remembered the mural I had seen in the Forgotten Keep, of that Hylden atop a cliff as if ready to fly, with spread….”
-
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 “Wings….” The Scion of Balance began a disgusted tone, realizing now what Ba’al was driving at. “They were evolving wings!”
Those bony structures on the backs of every Hylden had had ever seen, including the Seer herself, had always puzzled him as to their function. Had they been the small beginnings of wings of their own all the time? If that was true then it added a new, foul tasting aspect to the ancient war that left Kain with a cold feeling in his stomach.
“Indeed they were.” Ba’al confirmed grimly. “Can you understand what that meant? Up until the first Hylden were born with those stumpy beginnings of their own method of flight, our people were the only winged race to exist.” His face took on a sorrowful expression. “In our minds that ability elevated us above all others.”
Kain took a while longer to digest these disturbing facts before he looked up again.
“So far you have painted a damning picture of the Vampire race.” He accused. “In fact you might be said to agree with Moebius and his knights.”
Ba’al cleared his throat a tad uncomfortably.
“Moebius has the truth on his side, I am sad to say… but only a human version of it.” He corrected but without much enthusiasm for his defensive stance. “From their perspective we are indeed vile, contemptible creatures that deserve to be killed as we tried to kill.” The Guardian frowned in deep disapproval. “But his eyes are blinded by his own petty prejudices and ambitions.”
Kain paused to wonder exactly how much time was left before Moebius eventually reduced this Citadel to a ruin and exterminated the winged Ancients.
“My only regret is that he talked Mortanious into following his lead.” Ba’al mused on in bleak melancholy. Then he remembered himself and shook his head sharply. “But we have digressed long enough. You are here to learn of your destiny.”
“From it seems the Tablets of Dark Fable.” Kain remarked.
“From them and only them.” The Guardian assured him. “Without the Seer I can not understand what I wrote upon them, nor connect with the Divine Force that told me how to raise the Pillars.”
The Scion of Balance fixed his eyes on him.
“Divine Force…” He repeated flatly. “Your god? The same god that ordered you to destroy the Hylden?”
Ba’al actually snarled.
“…No, not Him!” He said savagely. “Never from Him!”
Slightly taken aback by this vehemence Kain regarded the Guardian in his anger maintaining as detached a look as best he good.
“Do I detect resentment in your voice?” He asked slowly.
“From too few of us, more to the pity. The majority of my people were so dependant on Him that separation was lethal to their minds.” Ba’al replied. He paced around angrily for a moment, his expression revealing the look of pure hatred in his eyes that had caused the lines on his face.
“We did everything He commanded, we served Him faithfully for centuries and then when we needed Him the most He turned His back on us!” He paused, cleared his throat and turned apparently recovered. “But there are other forces besides and it is from them that the Pillars came to me, and from that same source the instructions that aided both myself and the Seer write those Tablets you desire so much.”
Kain was no more inclined to trust these nameless, faceless forces than the False God itself but this was the only option open to him right now.
“Where are they?” He asked, finally deciding to cut the banter short.
“Not here.” Ba’al replied, equally abrupt. “I could not ensure their safety in this place.” That was certainly true enough and Kain was glad for it.
“I gave them to the Serioli, my trusted warriors and smiths. I ordered their grand mistress, Ajatar Cadere, to protect those Tablets with the lives of all her soldiers if necessary.” A weak smile broke his lips revealing his fangs. “Now that you are here, I am glad that I can relieve her of that duty.”
“Where will I find her?”
“To the west, in the land of our most devoted human servants.” The Guardian gestured off in that general direction. “There the Serioli have build their own fortress against the rise of the eastern humans tribes.”
Ba’al pointed to another image on the wall, this one kept in far better condition. It showed a map of Nosgoth, more complete than any other.
To the west, extending beyond the far shore of the Lake of Tears was a rocky and mountainous peninsula. A location in the tallest mountain was marked with the icon of a blacksmiths hammer.
“It is their most tenacious position in Nosgoth. Our Citadel here will fall long before their own, of that I am sure.” Ba’al commented dryly, pointing it out.
Then he reached up and with a sharp tug he pulled off the amulet he wore around his neck, handing it without hesitation to Kain who accepted it wearily.
The amulet was mostly gold, inlaid with silver with a diamond directly in the centre. The symbol for the Pillar of Balance was carved directly into the stone itself.
“Show my personal seal to them and Ajatar will aid you in any way she can.” The Guardian informed him with a confirming nod. “Go with speed Scion, the hopes of all three races rest with you… even if they do not yet realize it.”
With that finally benediction he disappeared, fading away into the haze of a translocation spell.
That spell always did seem to be a favorite means of ending a conversation.
-
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 “Despite his absurd eccentricities, I felt a strange kinship to Ba’al that I would not admit aloud. He was one of the few beings I have ever met that genuinely had the greater good of Nosgoth in mind when playing this game. I could respect that in a person.”
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Kain looked over at the map again, studying it closely and hoping that it was as accurate as it appeared. He did not want to spend days searching the mountains for the Serioli stronghold.
-
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 “It was time for me to press on with my journey. The protectors of the Tablets, the original Serioli smiths and warriors, were due a house call. I hoped they would not mind my visitation too much.”