The tablet in his hands once again broke apart into tiny fragments that were drawn into his very being as if he had breathed them in. As the particles of the last of the Tablets of Dark Fable were absorbed, Kain felt himself toppling backwards as his senses were wrenched away from reality to come other place.
This time it felt profoundly different, as if all the pieces of the four tablets within him were collecting into one and unleashing this new experience on had unprepared self.
The faces of the Serioli gathered around him faded and darkness prevailed, a never ending darkness. It was a black void, stretching out beyond even the mind’s wildest imagination; on and on and on to endless infinity. Time was infinite as Kain already knew, as indeed was Space.
Spotted here and there off in this unending black where the twinkling stars which had so vexed Kain before, with their twinkling control and signs, controlling the destiny of the mortals below. From this vantage point, the illusion was shattered and Kain saw the folly of astrology. The stars were not fixed in the heavens as he had thought but their positions changed as he moved, dispelling the façade,
Kain smiled to himself. The stars had no more control over destiny than had any other source of light and with that knowledge Kain felt freer than he had in centuries.
He was moving he was sure of that and as he gradually became aware of his new surroundings he could feel that the ground beneath his feet was alive. Around him were thick spurs jutting out of the fleshy ground with tuffs of green fur sticking up here and there through the blubber like skin.
The long body of the creature he had seen more than once in his visions stretched out behind him, long and whip like against the darkness of the void.
“Kain.” That voice, that same loud voice from his previous visions began to him. “Kain.” The vampire turned, seeing now that he was standing on top of the huge head he had seen, lined with colossal tusks that framed the whale like head. “The pebble in the pond.”
This vision was far more real than the others had been, he found that he could move again and see things as he directed.
The void was bitterly cold, as if there was no warmth in this place.
“Who are you?” Kain asked of the creature, threading carefully down towards the tip of the nose. “What are you?” He jumped back suddenly as the lid of an eye, the size of a house, peeled back. The glowing luminosity of the wet orb glared at him, a pupil just visible through the light.
“A Keeper.” That huge voice replied. “A God.”
Kain steadied himself, a frown creasing his face.
“I have met one being already claiming divinity.” He said in heavy suspicion and contempt.
“I know.” The entity replied apparently not offended. “But in comparison to creatures that walk in the mortal coil, our existence is that of the divine.”
Kain walked about the mountainside that was this face, watching as four more eyelids peels back to look at him. There were five eyes, four small ones facing forward with a larger, round on in the centre.
“As you should know Kain, have you not been deified before?” This ‘Keeper’ asked, almost sardonically. “Did you ever consider yourself a god, even when fledglings by the thousands bowed at your feet and offered you sacrifices upon their alters?”
Kain considered that. He had enjoyed the fruits of power, well earned after his long struggle and conquest of Nosgoth but he had never let it go to his had so much that he thought himself a deity.
He had encouraged the belief that he was a god to the vampires in order to encourage loyalty and solidify his hold over the empire, but that had never been his own personal conviction.
“God or mortal, the distinction depends upon perspective.” The Keeper added and Kain decided then to change the subject.
“Why am I here?”
“There is a magical operation of Maximum Importance.” The Keepr’s body coiled then, twisting up and over itself as if it were spinning. The stars around blurred in this barrel roll but surprisingly Kain felt no inertia or even any sense of motion. “And you will be the one to carry it out.”
Suddenly, Kain caught sight of that blue orb in the far distant, a spot of colour in the colourless void. Slowly by surely the Keeper was swimming through the nothingness towards it.
“Why me?” The vampire asked. “Why am I, Scion of Balance, entrusted with this ‘operation’?”
The Keeper levelled off after a moment, the tip of its mighty tusks now aimed directly at that blue dot.
“Kain… Balance was lost a long time ago, far longer than you realise. The corruption of the Circle, the fall of the Pillars, the Vampire and Hylden war; all these are shadows cast by the true imbalance. And this Imbalance was the reason the Pillars were conceived, the reason I gave to Ba’al Zebur the concept for building them.”
“You!” Kain began, nearly spluttering at this intelligence. He could hardly bring himself to contemplate such a staggering revelation, that the Pillar’s architecture was not Ba’al at all but rather the creature upon which he stood?
-
“For the first time in eons, I was so stunned I felt I needed to sit down.”
-
“Communication between creatures of linear space and time is difficult for those who dwell beyond times edge.” The Keeper explained, elaborating further. “In fact, in essence you are not even talking to me right now. But rather you are interacting with my essence only distantly. Ba’al and the Seer were given information that only together did they interrupt correctly, resulting in the Pillars whose existence corrected the first imbalance.”
“What imbalance?” Kain demanded, enthralled by the tale of this creature and his eyes still fixed on that blue dot as it slowly began to grow larger.
“Before the three races of Vampire, Hylden or Human even existed; there were two forces of opposing and equal strength.
These two forces were meant to work together towards one common goal but that equality of antiquity was disrupted by a sin of which you know all to well.”
The Keeper’s head turned to look to one side.
“Greed.” It said and Kain saw that as it travelled in the void, it was not alone.
There was another creature out there, another colossal entity. Its mass was enormous, blocking out the stars it seemed but it was not constant, its form shifted and changed and as Kain watched he saw that its body was a mass of tentacles, waving back and forth as it propelled itself forward.
There was a central core that was solid in the centre but the most part, it was like a giant squid like creature with uncountable numbers of eyes blinking blue against its slimy skin.
 It was the False God. Instinctively, Kain went to draw the Reaver only to find that it was not there. It had not followed him into his place. He sternly managed to keep his instinct for battle under control, reminding himself that this was merely a vision.
“Two forces.” He repeated, glancing between the distant form of his enemy and the Keeper. “Two Gods.”
“The Initiation of a New Aeon.” The Keeper said. “When we came to the world you call Nosgoth, it was meant to be a new beginning.
 We drifted for eons in the void, passing stars and suns on our journey. Our partnership endured all hardship and strife but when we came to this world of plenty, where we could be nourished and stated…” The entity trailed off that and Kain snorted, realising what was implied and finding some mirth in it.
“And when he saw the banquet before him, he decided he no longer wanted to share.” He finished for it.
“Perhaps I am guilty of naivety.” The Keeper remarked whimsically. “But having been through so much together, I never suspected him of such callousness.”
“Then you are a fool.” The vampire told it bluntly. “Then were the Pillar’s merely your way of ensuring that if you could not feed, neither could he?”
“You misunderstand.” The Keeper said, turning back to face that blue orb in the cosmos that was expanding rabidly.  “Sustenance was not the ultimate reason for our journey, or the reason you exist. Before this is over and done, fundamental rules will be changed and even I will not see the end of it.
You will be instrumental in making these changes but you will not be alone in doing so. Your choice in Nosgoth will decide it all. Where it becomes necessary to utter a word.”
The blue orb was expanding even more and its glow was magnificent, framed by the biggest star around which it travelled.
So this was Nosgoth as it appeared from the outside? Not a flat disc nor a dome as had been argued over time but a sphere, a jewel in the bleak cosmos.
“You will suffer much before the end of this and be rewarded in more ways than one for your hardship. That which was lost shall be returned and paradox’s undone.” The Keeper said.
The vampire kept his eyes on the visage of Nosgoth, staring down from heaven itself. Rom here it seemed at no mater how corrupt it might become on the surface, from this vantage point Nosgoth would always be as pure and immaculate.
He felt…humbled.
“What is it I must do?” Kain asked almost in a hushed whisper.
“Be prepared for a long journey yet Kain and it will not be easy, it will be fraught with danger for you and your partner both.”
“I have no partner.” He replied almost absently.
“Don’t you?” The Keeper sounded amused. “The road ahead will be the hardest to travel yet and if you are to succeed, the whole planet must be bathed in blood.”
-
“With that cryptic remark, I felt myself thrust back violently into the world of ‘now’. I awoke from my final vision not with confusion but with clarity. The bully that had driven me so far as stronger than ever and I knew what I had to do.”
-
As Kain stirred, awakening once more to the present. With him now was a sense of purpose, a renewal of that hope which Raziel had given to him. The Keeper’s words had been ambiguous, but not the imprint of knowledge it had left behind. Kain knew precisely where to go now.
It was time to go home.
The Serioli had not moved him from the centre of the Pillars where he had accepted the last Tablet from Ansu, and their number stood there watching him reverently as he roused himself.
Ajatar stood there with her warriors, watching him. She seemed changed to him now, the fatalism fallen away and her eager nature coming through.
“I…” Kain started but then drew himself up, watching them closely to observe their reactions. “We… we have to go.”  As soon as he used the possessive ‘we’ the golden eyes lit up in eager anticipation.
Ajatar nodded in compliance.
“Yes we do.” She said. Kain started at her for the sudden uncharacteristic submission to his directions when before she had argue with him on nearly every point. He glanced around then at the faces of the winged Vampires around him and each one bore much the same expression Ajatar had, one of total reverence and devotion.
They knew what he was, although that any hope of anonymity in the face of his lifting of their sight was indeed quite slim.
 “I have only seen the power of Spirit expressed in momentary flares, brief sparks that are over before they even began.” Their leader and grandmaster was saying. “You fanned it into a flame within us all and now I can no longer look at the world in the same way.”
There was a general murmur of agreement amongst the warriors gathered around them and even the mean spirited Ansu looked to be in complete agreement.
Ajatar stepped forward and looked him squarely in the face.
“You are he who Ba’al told me to follow when he was gone.” She said. “The deliverer, come at last.” Slowly she knelt, going down onto one knee before him in submission. “The Scion of Balance.”
One by one the other Serioli bent their knees to him, bowing before him in acknowledgement of their allegiance and loyalty to him. Kain glanced around them all. He had matured considerably since the days when he had demanded the obedience and servitude of the multitudes but he was forced to admit that it did feel very good to have others bow to him.
“And so you finally admit it?” He asked the kneeling grandmaster.
“I am not a cretin and to ignore what I see before my very eyes.” She replied without looking up. “Late or not, you have come and that is all that matters… I see that now.” She rose then, but with her torso tilted in deep respect to him. “Lord Kain, I will follow you… as do those warriors assembled here in witness to this day.”
The warriors hoisted their weapons in the air on a gesture from Ansu and with a mighty cry they declared;
“All Hail Lord Kain, Scion of Balance!”
Ajatar looked him directly in the face again, expectantly for his answer. Kain stared back without displaying any emotion for a moment,
He had never intended NOT to take the Serioli with him as he knew how to ensure the survival of the Ancients now, but it was gratifying indeed to have them express their support to him of their own free will rather than having him force them.
He turned then to look towards the Pillars with a certain longing, observing their perfection one last time. Would he see them restored to this pure state in the time from which he came? Perhaps time was ripe to see if they might.
“To the north west, in the mountains beyond of the Lake of the Dead you will find a cave.” He told her. “Take all the supplies you can carry with you to that cave and wait for me there.”
“Where are you going?” She asked, watching him make his way towards the back end of the Pillar’s and the edge of the clearing in the forest.
“To talk with my enemy.”  Kain replied sardonically.