The humans were not the only ones to observe him. Perched on high ledges and columns of stone, gathered in their multitude were the minatory Ravens that had brought their master news of the world beyond this forested swamp. Like the human servants, they flocked here in their numbers, seeking the protection of that which had always provided for them.
Several of them called out into the un-natural silence that had fallen as Kain reached the large front door.
He simply kicked it open, the door banging sharply against the wall. The sound echoed down through the now derelict halls of the old house. Here, the wealth of kings and emperors had been amassed, displayed with pride to show the influence, prestige and power of Vorador’s private kingdom.
All that wealth had by now however been pilfered away by opportunistic sneak thieves, taken as Vorador had lapsed into decadence and debauchery. All that was left now were faded tapestries and dulled carpets. Spiders spun their webs unmolested in the dark corners and across the broken windows.
When Kain had visited before, he had paid little attention to any of Vorador’s possessions. He had been preoccupied with finding the ancient vampire and in eluding the tamed brides he kept as pets within the household.
The human vampire worshippers who had taken to scurrying around these fading buildings avoided him, although watched from a distance. They made no move to confront him, or restrict his movements. They simply kept a vigil, watching him from behind corners or from the illusionary safety of half open doors.
They were the first humans not openly hostile to Kain that he had encountered since he had left behind the sculpted worshippers of his own empire. But unlike those long forgotten cattle, these worshippers did not immediately drop to their faces when they came into his presence.
Still, if they could not afford to kowtow to him, then a respectful silence was the next best thing.
Kain decided not to bother pursuing them. They were not hindering him and if at some later point they decided to make themselves a nuisance then they could be easily dealt with.
The layout of the manor house was fairy typical, although it did stretch on for some distance. Vorador’s largest library overlooked a large back garden, with towering walls made of glass to give him an impressive panorama of eastern central Nosgoth. Entering the doors of the library, Kain pushed them open tentatively, responding to a sudden, deepening feeling of dread.
The door creaked open, echoing loudly, and stepping inside Kain looked down from a balcony into the centre of the library. The walls were lined with books on either side, stretching all the way up to the ceiling but directly in the centre of the room were several pieces of furniture including a large varnished table. Draped across that table and whatever lay upon it was a large white sheet, embroidered with gold. Standing in front of that table was a figure, wearing the same robe as the other humans but fitted to display a distinctly feminine frame.
On her raised arm perched one of this mansion’s sentinel Ravens, its head cocked to one side behind the figures ear. Its beak was moving slightly and if Kain had not known any better he would have sworn it was talking softly.  The bird looked up, saw him and let out its call almost challengingly.
The figure raised its arm higher and the bird took to flight, flapping up to an open panel in the glass wall. It perched on the edge before gliding outside. The figure then turned to look at him.

“The moment I opened the door to Vorador’s private refuge, I knew I had made a mistake. The scent that met me was not vampiric, but familiar none the less.”

Kain inhaled in surprise and took an involuntary step backwards.
“It… can not be…” he breathed, unable to control the expression on his face as the human looked him over. She pulled back her hood, exposing her raven black hair and milky complexion. Her sharp flawless face had curving dark markings down either side and across the brow.
“Greetings dark one.” she said, bowing her head respectfully.

“Umah… as a human; long before I would meet her for the first time, revived by the Cabal at the dark crescendo of the Second Sarafan order.
Before me blazed the memories of she who had guided me, she who had counselled me and then of she who had betrayed me. Or at least, that was what I would tell myself in the weak moments when doubt began to seep into my mind.”

“I am glad to see that not all of your kind has been put to death by the animals.” she said to him almost conversationally as he slid over the side of the banister and landed at her level. “We had greatly feared that our master had been the last.” Kain approached, fixing his face into the grimmest expression he could forcibly manage. Umah.
He had all but erased memory of her from his mind, driving this source of weakness from himself in preparation for his tasks, and yet here she was; taunting him with her presence, reminding him of that terrible moment that even now filled him with shame.
 “Well, as you can see, your belief was mistaken.” he replied sourly, approaching to be seen in the soft light from the candlesticks that lined the walls.
“So I do” she replied, with that characteristic dry wit that he remembered so painfully clearly about her. Then she looked him over from head to toe. “Although I must say, your appearance leads me to believe that you are a vampire of some considerable age. I had thought Vorador to be the only one that old.”
Kain stared back in turn.
“He is not the only survivor.” he said, glancing to her and then to the table behind her. Something was concealed underneath the white cloth, something of a large size. “I take it you were a servant of Vorador?”
Umah smiled and raised her face.
“I had the sole honour of being his personal priestess.” Her voice resonated with something more, something beyond simple professional pride. In fact, Kain was tempted to believe that there as a faint note of wanted fulfilment and longing. She then looked at him directly. “My name is Umah and your arrival here is most fortuitous.”
Kain raised an eyebrow at her.
“Is that so?” he asked slowly in a tentative tone.
“Indeed.” Umah’s smile was intensely disturbing and instantly Kain’s instinct for those wishing to manipulate him, honed over centuries, was screaming at him to beware of this human. “I am in need of someone who can help me begin the restoration of your kind.”
That caught Kain by surprise a little but he maintained his neutral expression.
“You set yourself a grand goal.” he said.
“Is it not a worthy one?” she asked back, gesturing to the darkened library around them and, by extension, of the state of the once grand estate.
“That is not in dispute.” Kain remarked, folding his arms. “What is, however, is your competency is such a ‘momentous’ task.”
Umah didn’t take any offense at this and turned to lay her hands on the table.
“You may doubt me but I know that what I plan will succeed.”
Taking the bait, Kain approached on the other side giving her a sidelong glance.
“And just what is this ‘plan’ of which you speak so highly?” he asked her. Her lips parted in a soft grin that was amused but at the same time somewhat sad.
Slowly she reached forward and took hold of the white sheet before her in both hands, gently pulling it aside to reveal what was underneath. For a moment Kain did not entirely understand what he was seeing as the white veil slide to one side but then as Umah pulled the sheet off, letting it fall away; he understood.

“The corpse of Vorador. I had witnessed his execution myself when Moebius had guillotined him, displaying his head to a frothing crowd of fanatical hunters.”

The beheaded body lay there almost enshrined, the arms folded across the chest. He was naked down to the waist, the upper class robe and shirt he usually wore removed. The entire body, even around the hideous open wound at his neck, was meticulously cleaned. Kain stared at the body, seeing beyond the obvious.
The care given to this corpse hinted at a devotion to the deceased far beyond that of a simple master and servant relationship.  Kain shot a quick look at Umah. As she looked at the body, she carefully controlled the expression on her face to maintain the detachment she had exhibited before, but her eyes could not hide her inner feelings from him.
In them he could see a terrible, tearing grief and a desperate, merciless hope for whatever she wanted to do.
In that moment of clairvoyance, Kain straightened up and frowned in understanding.
“We retrieved it at great risk from the mob of Stahlberg.” Umah was saying, gazing up and down the body, but refusing to look for very long at the space where his head ought to be. “We could not allow his remains to be burnt, like those of some stray dog.”
Her tone was ridden with contempt.
“Spare me the sentiment.” the vampire remarked; his eyes still on her as she reached down and drew the white cloth back over the corpse. “You mean to revive him, don’t you?”  It was more a statement of fact than a question, for what else could be her meaning in showing him this enshrined corpse?
“You are quite perceptive, vampire.” she conceded, letting her shoulders droop. “Lord Vorador is the only vampire who can restore your kind. He must be raised for the assured continuation of your species.” Kain instantly knew that this, an admittedly advantageous and legitimate concern, was not her primary motive. “But I am lacking the essential missing piece.”
At this the vampire smiled.
“His head.” he stated sardonically. Umah scowled a little.
“Don’t state the obvious.” she said testily, but then checked herself, taking a deep breath to clear her irritation before she carried on. “The head was taken, displayed like a trophy, and carried out of our reach. His body was all we would seize from the hunters, but if he is to live again, we must have his whole form restored.”
Kain chuckled.
“And so we come to why you require my assistance.” The use for a pawn; an apparently universal method of control. It would seem everyone had use for him as some errand boy.
“Indeed so.” Umah confirmed. “Restore his head to me… help me reconstitute him and your race.”
Kain turned his head, snorting in low contempt.
“Forgive the rather pedestrian phrase but… what’s in it for me?” he asked in a flat voice. Umah looked at him with suddenly wide eyes.
“Do you not wish to see your race survive?” she actually sounded shocked.
“I have said this before to others but, as long as a single one of us stands, we are legion.” he turned then to look at her. “I am not to be motivated into philanthropic acts by some plea to my better nature.” With a broad sweep of one arm he gestured, taking in the whole library. “I am in need of knowledge, ancient lore, perhaps lost long ago, that I had hoped to find here in his library.”
Umah’s eyes wandered unbidden around the room as well, glancing from right to left at the many books and scrolls. Then her smile returned and she chuckled.
“Well then, vampire… perhaps a deal might be arranged.”
Kain narrowed his eyes.
“Explain.”
Umah walked around the table to the far side, running her hands across the outside edge.
“My lord Vorador is ancient, older than any living vampire, and knows many things and secrets from a time when his dark kind ruled the world.” she said, keeping her eyes deliberately over his veiled body. “Assist me in reviving him and I will speak with him on your behalf. I am certain he will depart to you any knowledge you might find of use.”
Kain watched her move without blinking.
“And so you ask me to assume that you will keep your word?”
Umah shrugged and spread her arms.
“Your alternative is to search through my lord’s entire library yourself.” she said with a sly grin. “You could delve into these tomes for three lifetimes and not find anything of any value.”
Kain glanced around at the books again, noting exactly how many of them there were. Scrolls were stuffed in whatever space remained between the volumes of books, all the way up to the high ceiling. This was not the only library of Vorador’s to have this many books in it, either.
She was right. He could spend night after night studying these books while there was no guarantee what he sought lay in any of them.
“Very well, clever priestess you have made your point.” he said in defeat. “Tell me then, where might it be that your master has mislaid his crown?”
Her expression turned dark.
“It was taken by the hunters to the old Sarafan Stronghold that stands on the shores of the Southern Lake. There, they hope to keep it as their prize.”
That obviously could not be allowed to stand. The implied insult was not to be suffered.
“Then their presumptuousness must not go unpunished.” he said. “So be it then, Priestess Umah. I will return shortly with the head of your master.” He turned back to face the door.
“Before you leave, vampire.” she said, causing him to halt. “Tell me… what is your name?”
Kain froze.
He kept his back to her, so that she might not see the tortured expression on his face and the anguish in his eyes.
“You will learn who I am… eventually.” This was all he said before his body began to emit a sickly green glow. The light became a mist that enveloped his body as it began to break down, his mass and substance morphing and taking flight. Umah took several half alarmed steps backward as Kain became a swarm of bats that screeched through the air before flying together out the window and into the sky.

“Again, destiny forms the circle that I had seen so often already. Was this circular destiny to be the mark of those touched by fate, Raziel and myself? Umah was but the latest proof I had that Fate itself had a sense of humour.”