“For obvious reasons I chose not to accompany Vorador to confront my younger self and so instead I stole along the empty corridors of the mansion. I knew the layout of the estate well enough and so I came into the main vestibule just as Vorador reached it. I came out onto a balcony and there, in the shadows, I watched in fascination. There was no mistaking the vampire who waited below, with such handsome features to be anything but my past incarnation.”

Kain watched, looking down from his hidden vantage point. His younger self stood directly in the centre of the large hallway, the Reaver swung across his back in the same style he wore it in.
Kain had known better than to take the sword with him when he came to watch, for the coming together of two Reaver blades could create that dangerous time altering paradox and for the moment, history and destiny were going along smoothly for him.
His younger self had clearly seen some intense battle. His old iron armour was scraped, torn and dented in many places.
Kain still missed that armour occasionally, not that he ever needed it again but rather for nostalgic reasons. Vorador came through the large door on a lower balcony, flanked by two of his worshippers and stood looking down at Kain’s past incarnation with complete surprise.
The younger Kain returned the gaze, neither of them quite able to believe that the other was standing in front of them. The fledgling stared because he was convinced he had already seen Vorador killed and as for Vorador himself he could not believe it was Kain here as he had just come directly with talking with his future self.
Kain rubbed his head, trying not to get a headache from puzzling through the complications of time travel.
“It would seem that my eyes play tricks on me.” The young vampire said, breaking the silence.  “I saw you beheaded by Moebius’ mob less than a month ago.”
Vorador rubbed his neck uncomfortably, fingering the edge of his scar.
“That you did.” He admitted, spreading his arms. “I thought I spied you at the back of the crowd. But as you can see, I live once more.”
The fledgling smiled.
“And that is indeed fortunate.” He said grimly, showing off his fangs. “As for Moebius, rest assured that I returned the favour that he did you.”
Above, Kain mouthed the words spoken by his younger self as he remembered them all too well. 
“My, that was courteous of you.” Vorador said.
The younger vampire coughed.
“I am afraid I must apologise for I killed one of your human lackeys when he told me of your resurrection.” He said a little glibly. “I thought him a liar trying to frighten me away with the threat of retribution.”
Vorador shook his head and waved his hand to indicate unconcern.
“They’re replaceable.” He concluded. “What business do you have here with me? Is your juvenile scourge against the Circle of Nine complete?”
The young vampire’s eyes briefly flickered in annoyance.
“The Circle is a thing of the past.” He said with intense finality. “I have a new goal now… a new vision, for all of Nosgoth.”
Vorador raised an eyebrow quizzically to him.
“And what vision is that?” He asked slowly.
“The humans must be brought low for the mass extinction they perpetrated upon our kind.” The younger vampire unsheathed the Reaver, sliding it off his back. He placed the tip on the floor and leaned against the hilts pommel. “A new order must rise with vampires taking their natural status back as the Master Race!”
“You talk gibberish.” The elder waved his hand dismissively.
“Then let me be more concise.” He picked up the Reaver then and held it in one hand regally at a tilt. “I wield the Reaver blade, the strongest and most powerful sword in existence. With this sword I will take this land back from the humans who infest it, with an army of vampires to sweep across the land and rebuild this world to our liking.”
Vorador snorted dismissively and even the Kain who had lived through this before found that he shared the elder vampires distaste for the young fledglings overbearing arrogance.
“Your power crazed ranting is failing to sway me sufficiently Kain. I have seen many a fledgling before you become intoxicated by the allure of power the dark gift provides.”
The young vampire stared at the ancient with profound disgust for a long moment.
“It is the natural way of things.” He said eventually in a lofty tone.
“And this ‘would be’ new order you speak of, it shall have yourself as overlord of all vampires I suppose?” Vorador asked tartly, with a cutting underlying insult.
“It is my destiny to rule over this world!” The younger Kain barked.

“I watched this exchange with the most powerful sense of déjà-vu for I remembered this conversation all too well and it felt strange to compare what I remembered with what I could see happening before me.
I remember this event with a far different shade of perception. I had perceived Vorador as being irrational and an obstructionist and given this unique chance to see it in clear retrospect, I saw myself as a blustering fool of a youth with absurd delusions of grandeur.”
But I would learn in time of my folly, ‘dulce bellum inexpertis’… war is sweet to those who have never fought. ”

Vorador said to the youthful vampire in the same tone.
“Your rhetoric is beginning to grow tiresome Kain.”
“Then I come direct to the point.” The past Kain snapped back. “Moebius’ crusade has left our numbers dangerously low. If I would hazard a guess I would suppose that only you and I are the only vampires left.”
Vorador folded his arms in front of himself.
“Your assessment of the situation appears accurate.” He said in an aggrieved voice. The young Kain marched forth just as his future self remembered himself doing and now stood only a few steps from the ancient, glaring up at him.
“Then you must begin again.” He said more firmly than any fledgling should speak to an elder. “Create a new race of vampires… become the father of the next breed.”
Vorador simply stared at him, eyes wide. Then his face began to slowly but surely twist into a savage anger that made his green face colour and turn a far darker shade.
“: …You dare…” He began in a deceptively low voice. “You dare come into my house and demand from me such an abominable act?”
“Who else will restore us if not you?” The youth demanded. “I can not do it; I have yet to learn the ways and means of vampiric creation.” By this time, Kain knew that it took much more to create a new vampire than the simple romanticized act of simply biting someone in the neck.
“Don’t try to confuse me with such feigned sentimentality!” Vorador’s said savagely, his voice rising in volume higher and higher. “What you really want is for me to make for you the army you desire.”
 He jabbed an angry talon in the youth’s direction.
“You want me to create new vampires just so you can use them as cannon fodder!  Your motives are, as always, painfully transparent!”
The past Kain looked at Vorador with something very close to deep contempt, lips drawn back over his fangs almost in a snarl. His gauntleted hand clasped the hilt of the Soul Reaver tight.
“You fool.” His voice was soft but brimming with venom. “You old fool. You think you can just hide here forever… in this decrepit, stinking swamp? ” He picked up the sword in one hand and swept it around, gesturing with it to the ruined hall and by extension the entire dying estate.
“Did the embrace of death teach you nothing? We must strike at them first, make them fear us and respect us as they once did.”
Without a moment’s hesitation, Vorador lifted his hand and sent a bolt of energy directed down towards his arrogant visitor. It didn’t strike the young Kain but at the floor just before where he stood. It exploded at the blast, chunks of wooden and blackened carpet exploding into the air.
The youth did not flinch but his eyes narrowed.
“Get you gone!” Vorador snapped savagely at him. “And take your barking stupidity with you!”
From above, Kain observed his younger self snort divisively and heft the Reaver up to carry it over one shoulder.
“Oh I will go Vorador… but this conversation is not over.” He advised callously, half turning to leave. “One way or another, I will get what I need from you. You are simply too valuable to me.”
With that he strode out of the hall, his proud arrogant back on Vorador. The ancient vampire did not wait for him to leave but rather left immediately himself, marching back through the door by which he had come with his human worshippers following behind him.

“With the departure of my past self, I was free to leave the shadows. Little did my younger personage know that from this new race of vampires I was so desperate to create from Vorador, I would raise many who would betray me… Marcus, Faustus and Sebastian… trusted lackeys all until they turned on me to further their own ambitions. It was a blow to realise, years from their deaths at my hands, that my actions in the conquest of Nosgoth had been little better than their own.”

Kain, leaving the hall, entered an antechamber just as Vorador came through another door entering as well. When he saw him, Vorador motioned for his two escorting worshipers to wait outside. They bowed low and left, leaving the two of them alone.
“Vorador…” Kain began, feeling some need for at least a basic explanation but the ancient held up a hand quickly.
“Be silent.” He said coldly. His eyes were so penetrating and angry that Kain closed his mouth immediately despite himself.
“From that… rather interesting phenomenon I can deduce only one logical hypothesis.” The ancient began slowly in a tone that set the mood of the discussion immediately. “The Kain I just sent away… is the young arrogant fool I know so well.”
He kept his eyes solely on Kain’s face.
“You; so evolved and matured, are who he will become in a time yet to come.”
Kain managed an ironic but at the same time grim smile.
“And the question I must ask myself is why I continually underestimate your deductive reasoning?”
The ancient vampire snorted and began pacing.
“There are many kinds of sorcery in this world that can do many strange and unbelievable things.” He concluded with head tilted to one side.
“I don’t know how you accomplished this feat, but are you not risking irreparable damage to the time stream?” He gestured back the way he had come. “After all you almost crossed paths with yourself.”
“I know… but you needn’t be concerned about the timeline.” Kain assured him quickly. “From its perspective, I am little more than a misplaced cobblestone.”  He decided to omit the fact that between Raziel and himself, history had been changed quite a bit already.
“What is of importance however is the fact that my younger self was right… you must become the father of the next vampire race.”
Vorador glared at him with disgust, eyes narrowed and brow drawn down.  His entire being shook with suppressed rage. Then he controlled himself and he swung around to face Kain directly.
“And now we come to the true reason you urged me to leadership.” He said. “So you can ensure that your own greedy ambition is sacrosanct in history.”
Kain leaned forward slightly, arms spread in entreaty.
“Vorador… it’s your destiny…” He began but the ancient cut him off.
“You would have me create vampires just to be used in war?” He asked, taking an angry step forward. He shook his head. “You fool Kain.”
He broke away and began pacing again, another of his nervous habits Kain supposed, watching with suppressed amusement at the irritated flick of the ancient’s large ears. Vorador paused in his passing after a while and took a deep breath.
“Do you know how and why Janos passed the dark gift on? He and no other of the ancients?” He asked then. “Do you know why all turned vampires were descended from him alone?”
That was a question Kain could not answer. In truth, the question had never actually occurred to him.
“It’s because he was the only one who dared.” Vorador said with a slump to his shoulders. “No other ancient could stomach what he did to keep our bloodline going. Janos Audron was reviled even by his own peers, condemned for the act of passing on our blood to humans.”
Kain frowned at this intelligence.
“But he had no other choice. However publically reviled he was; he was needed to turn the human guardians into vampires when they went through puberty.” Vorador carried on.
“And so you were his first? His guinea pig?” Kain asked. The Ancient vampire did not rise to that insult.
“Even before I was turned he and I were like father and son.” He said. “He explained to me exactly what he wanted to do… and I volunteered to be the first to be turned.” His eyes fixed on Kain’s. “That is what it means to create a new race. I will not sully the name of my sire by perverting it just so you can have an army.”
Then he vanished, vanishing into a green haze as he translocated away; using a short range spell to take him to the privacy of another room of the house.

“With that final statement, Vorador left me alone to ponder this. I knew it to be his destiny, I knew that Vorador would make the race from which my first army would be made and then lost in battle against the Sarafan Lord.
It was essential that he be convinced to join with my younger self, both in creating the vampire race and in cooperating to defeat the Sarafan during their forthcoming rule.”