The water cascaded down on his shoulders; matting his hair wet and making it cling to his back. Floating down through the narrow pipe Kain could feel the water, cold and pure, sliding over his skin without its burning touch. His eyes did not dissolve on contact, nor did the flesh burn off his bones.
“Exhilarating! The last time water had touched me without burning my very flesh had been when I had been human… eons ago now. I had forgotten what the sensation had been like.”
He must have dropped for quite some distance before the pipe opened up into another chamber, this one a good couple of hundred feet down from where he had started. There was no floor, only a tank of water.
There was a moment when he hung suspended in the air, before the water’s surface was struck and he slipped into it without as much as a splash.
“To my great shame, over the centuries of separation from the water, I had forgotten how to swim. So for a very undignified moment I floundered like a new born dropped in the ocean. Instinct however saved me from disgrace and I found myself gliding forward.
His hair floated out behind him as he sank down below the surface. Unable to suppress it, he panicked in the water… his subconscious screaming at him to get out of the burning liquid and it took his rational mind a moment to calm his body.
Had it been this for Raziel when he had first adapted to swim in the water?
Kain, still not half believing that this was really happening, paddled upon underwater for a short while to test himself. He had greater lung capacity than a human and thus could remain under for much longer without coming up for air.
“And now I finally understood the joy I had seen on Ruhab’s face when he had evolved this gift, despite what I had done to Raziel for his apparent premature growth of wings. A weakness overcome.”
Ruhab of course, infected with Nupraptor’s corruption poison which Kain had passed onto him, devolved and became more fish than vampire. He had also traded one immunity for another and even though he was a clan leader, sunlight burned him like fire. Kain however was quite sure that had had gained the new ability without the loss of another.
The water carried on, being drained away by another pipe in the side of the wall. Kain kept on swimming, gradually picking up the trick to moving gracefully through the water. The pipe curved around several times and Kain swam on and on. He came up now and then in pockets of air to breath before carrying on.
Then the pipe ended and he could that he could surface into another room within the stronghold.
“We can’t get to them without coming within range of those catapults.” A voice was saying as Kain put his head above the water.
The chamber was square with the water running underneath the floor in a cross, covered only by a metal grate. Glancing up through the gaps Kain could see several figures standing above him.
One of them was Ajatar the grandmaster of the Serioli. Beside her were other warriors, two of them winged ancients and another one of the newer human bred stock.
“I want those siege engines destroyed!” Ajatar said angrily, her wings bristling behind her back. “They’ll have us cracked open with those wrecked stones battering the walls.”
“As soon as the sun goes down, I’ll take the fledglings out to wreck havoc amongst them.” The human born vampire said.
“We may not have until then!” Ajatar told him sharply, her tone frustrated and hopeless at the same time. “We might have to risk an attack ourselves.”
“But there are so few of us left now!” One of the winged ancients protested, arms outstretched. Kain recognized him as having been with Ajatar at the Seer’s cave, he was the one with the sword. From this angle it was hard to see him clearly.
“I would never give such an order without due course Apep, you know that.” His grandmaster said ominously.
Kain had heard enough to grasp the situation. He slid back underneath the water, leaving them behind and following the current towards another pipe at the far end of the room.
The water for the citadel, presumably built to give the pre-curse vampires a fresh supply of drinking water, drained out into a nearby ravine. Kain had seen this pouring out down into the sea when he approached the stronghold the first time. The current was strong and drawing him on faster and faster.
Spreading his arms out side, Kain did not fight it and swam with the current, pushing on through the wide pipe on and on towards the light he saw at the far end of the tunnel. He needed more speed and so with all the swimming techniques his body was slowly remembering, he swam on faster and faster.
When the water finally met the fastened metal grate to the outside, Kain simply became as mist and burst out through it. Even in gaseous form his momentum carried on, flying out beyond the reach of the waterfall.
Becoming solid again in mid flight, Kain flew on and reached out wide with both arms until he connected with the cliff face on the other side of the ravine. His talons dug into the rock and he clung there, his arms straining to hold his weight. Below him was the plunge to the battering rocks and surf.
Grunting with the effort, the vampire began to climb, pulling himself up the rock, securing himself by sinking his talons into the stone.
It took him a good couple of minutes to reach the ledge and he hauled himself up onto it and struggled to his feet.
Turning, he looked back across the plateau on which the fortress was built. From here he could see the front of the Serioli fortifications and the extent of the damage done by the siege engines, which even now were hurling rock after rock at the walls. The human army had not yet begun a full assault. Instead they waited out of range of the walls, occasional archers firing shots at the battlements.
“The human armies position was thoroughly entrenched behind the range of their siege engines. The Serioli, cut off from any supplies, could not withstand a siege. Therefore their fate was left in my hands.”
Kain then glanced off down the ravine towards the feral human settlement he had visited before. His first impression from the fortress had been correct. The entire settlement was gone now, fallen down into the bottom of the gap. The only remains were a few smoldering stumps of wood, lodged into the cliff.
The Sarafan’s ancestors had murdered in cold blood some of their own kind, guilty of merely coexisting with vampires.
While not the most appealing cause to his sense of priority, given the situation, it would do for a motivation.
Translocating back across the ravine, he drew the Reaver in mid air and fell upon the Seraphim archers. The Reaver swung back and forth, sheering through armour flesh and bone and screaming as it devoured soul after soul. Caught off guard, these early humans backed off in alarm from such savage battle fury.
These men were not the hardened warriors the later Sarafan were. They were nothing more than thugs in armour, given some scapegoat to vent their anger against. They had never come up against a vampire such as he, tempered by centuries of combat.
He struck them down before they could move, limbs flying in all directions and blood coated the ground.
By the time any of them could put up a descent fight, Kain had already cut through a score of their numbers leaving shattered and sliced corpses in his wake.
“Vexare vampiri!!” Up ahead a soldier in armour was yelling, jabbing in Kain’s direction with his sword.
The archers had fallen back and were taking up positions, drawing his bows back to fire directly at him.
Kain did not wait. He held up his right hand towards them and once focused burst of force through the Serioli gauntlet sent all of them flying into the air, tumbling back over the stunned warriors.
“While the Serioli were not my enemies there was little to be gained by helping them either. Still however, some deep instinct within told me that I might require their aid to further my own ends later.”
The Reaver drank well that day and as Kain sliced through the warriors, one after another, he was certain that he could feel a faint sickly note emerge in the screams of Raziel’s spirit. As if he was suffering the ill effects of over indulgence.
To spare him the soul devouring equivalent of an upset stomach, Kain swung the Reaver back and unleashed bolts of energy into his foes. The humans struck with these sizzling projects cooked inside the metal plating, screaming as smoke and worse poured out between the gaps in their armor.
“VAE VICTUS!” He declared to them all, knowing that these humans who spoke the old tongue would recognize what it meant.
They flinched back away from him and using that opening, Kain leapt up over their ranks and while in mid air unleashed yet another focus burst. This was not directly at the men below but instead at the trebuchet behind them.
Amplified by his gauntlet, the force cracked the siege engine under the tremendous pressure and the device warped hideously. Then the tension grew too great and it exploded; lethal seized shards of wood spraying out in all directions. Kain was saved from a fatal impaled by instinctively reverting to his mist form at the last second, the fragments flying through him harmlessly.
The humans below were not so fortunate, many of them died instantly by shards impeding themselves in vulnerable areas like the head and chest. Others were left screaming in agony on the ground, with the fragments lodged in their flesh in sensitive but not fatal places.
“With the siege engine destroyed, the Serioli stronghold would hold against any feeble against mere human flesh could throw at it.”
There were a few catapults further away but these were shorter range, ballista style weapons and not very accurate. Clearly it had not yet occurred to the humans of this time to make fire ballista’s, using burning pitch. Kain made his way to the edge of the battlefield to survey the carnage he had wrought.
“If this fortress survived then it would be their own efforts alone from this point forward. I could waste no more time here. Vorador’s forge awaited.”
“Warrior!” Kain could have gone there and then, but a voice distracted him. Glancing up, he saw that flying towards him was a winged figure.
When it drew near Kain recognized the slim, athletic form of Ajatar. She soared over him gracefully before spiraling down to land a few feet away, her black winged closing shut behind her even before she touched the ground.
“So I have graduated from ‘monstrosity’ then?” Kain asked whimsically, as she straightened back up with a half glance towards the battlefield where the stunned Serephim army was still trying to understand what had just hit them.
The winged ancient looked a bit flushed but brushed it off.
“My apologies for the incivility of my warriors.” She said with a short incline of his head and Kain blinked, sensing the genuine sincerity in her voice. She was definitely humbled a great deal than the last time they spoke. “And my thanks for aiding us this day.”
Kain nodded back.
“These humans needed to be taught to respect their betters.” He said. In response she glanced once at the shattered trebuchet and the butchered humans around it apprehensively.
“Indeed.” She said with some tact. “But this is only the beginning, I beg that you hurry, your sword is needed elsewhere.”
Kain raised an eyebrow at her.
“I have just received word that the traitors to the Circle, Moebius and Mortanious, have amassed a fleet and even now their armada besieges the Citadel itself.”
“When?” Kain asked, his blood suddenly running cold.
“Less than three hours ago.” Ajatar told him, her own expression grave and serious. “The eastern human tribes have risen in force and there are not enough of the pure blooded vampires left to stop them.”
Kain swore.
As he had half suspected, he was almost out of time. The ancient world was fading and the rise of men had begun.
“I will go to the Citadel.” He said firmly, turning to look east across the horizon. He could only faintly make out the inland sea as a distant line of silver, erroneously called the ‘lake’ of tears.
“I shall accompany you.” Ajatar declared, causing Kain to glare back at her. “Once my warriors have disposed of this rabble they will follow. We must go to the capitals defense.” She then asserted, defiantly at the clear disapproval in Kain’s eyes.
“You would only be a hindrance to me.” He told the winged ancient flatly. The grandmasters nostrils flared indignantly.
“I do not require a guardian to watch over me in combat.” She said with her wings bristling behind her.
Kain glanced around, seeing that by now the Serephim were beginning to collect themselves from their stunned confusion. It would not be long before they would renew their attack once again.
“Do what you will.” He said and promptly his body dissipated, transforming in bats and flying up into the air in a swarm.
Ajatar stumbled back in alarm from the spectacle, watching after him with clear stunned confusion clear on her face. Then she too took flight, beating her wings sharply to give herself the thrust necessary to get off the ground.
Kain did not bother looking back. He could sense the winged ancient following the bats. He was faintly amused at the shock such a method of travel would give her, as shape shifting was a magical skill that would be developed by human born vampires in the centuries to come.
The bats flew on, beating their wings to near exhaustion to get back to the Citadel. When the Lake of Tears expanded on the panorama, Kain saw through the many eyes of his bats the full extent of the late hour.
“From the heavens, I watched dozens of human ships encircling the Citadel. The capital of the Ancient vampires was completely surrounded. Moebius had begun his first campaign of annihilation.”
