It was still raining when the sun began to rise in the early morning and Kain stood on a balcony overlooking the estates inner courtyard, leaning on the Reaver and watching the scurrying activity of the worshippers with a certain air of grim dissatisfaction about him.

“Vorador would not be swayed; least of all it seemed by me. Of course it was to be expected. The creation of a new race, a new family of vampires was not a task undertaken lightly. The bond between fledgling and sire was so acute and strong that the affection could last century upon century. He would need more than the power crazed ravings of my former self to spur him into this act.”

Beyond the estate walls, the swamp and far stretching forest was far from being devoid of activity either. Vorador had driven the marauding hunters out of his domain with a passion but although they were trying to keep quiet, there were traces of their broken troops out there. It was only a matter of time until they regrouped, gathered greater forces and returned.
The worshipers however were definitely planning on leaving before that happened.

“By all logic I should leave this place. Vorador had given me enough to work with when he told me of the first Balance Guardian and these Tablets of Dark Fable. Yet still some compulsion forced me to stay, to dwell here a little longer and observe. Something important, beyond the resurrection of Vorador, was meant to take place here but as to what this event was I could not be certain.”

He growled and began tightening and relaxing his grip on the Reaver’s hilt, a nervous gesture that helped him relax his tension.

 “The sensation of oncoming upheaval was not a pleasant one and I resolved to keep one eye cast over my shoulder.”

Hearing footsteps behind him, Kain glanced back over his shoulder and his expression turned grim when he saw Vorador coming out through a doorway. The ancient vampire was equally grave and they had kept a respectful distance from each other ever since the unexpected visit from Kain’s former self.
“Hmmth… still here are you?” Vorador asked with his tone just on the verge of insulting.
“I feel no pressing need to carry on with my journey so immediately.” Kain replied, matching the lack of civility. Vorador’s left ear twitched but he did not rise to that. Instead he came over and stood beside Kain, looking across the remains of his estate which were being slowly claimed by the swamp.
“If you’re lingering to convince me to comply then you are wasting your time.” He remarked. “My loyal worshippers and I are preparing to leave.”
Kain shot him a glare.
“To go into hiding?” He asked with distaste.
Vorador frowned. “Where else would you have us go?” He demanded. “You will not have me swayed.”
Kain turned away from him, sheathing the Reaver across his back and leaning his arms across the broken stone rail.
“I know you better than that. I tried to reason and if that’s not going to work… then something else will come along to convince you anyway.” He said in an offhand way.
“I doubt it.”
“It’s your destiny.” Vorador frowned at this and looked up at the sky.
“You say that overmuch.”
At this Kain managed a winsome grin.
“I’ve already seen you do it, Vorador.”
The ancient vampire was silent, digesting this fact. His expression gradually turned grimmer but then lightened. He drew in breath and exhaled sharply.
“And perhaps I will… but not for your army.” He eventually said. “When and if I give life to more of our kind will be decided by me and not some puffed up fledgling with a thirst for power.”
Kain simply shrugged.
“As you say Vorador... as you say…” He said in resignation. Vorador looked at him sceptically.
“You still do not look entirely satisfied.” Kain pursed his lips at this.
“The information you have given me leaves me with a question I can not answer.” He admitted. “Where do I go from here? The tablets on which is recorded the destiny of the Scion of Balance may have been lost eons ago.”
Those tablets could be the key to his destiny, the long lost destiny Moebius and the False God had denied to him. The destiny he had sacrificed an empire and his first born son for.
“You are speaking to the wrong person Kain.” Vorador sighed. “I can not know everything.” Then he paused and looked thoughtful.  “…. Although…”
Kain looked around at him.
“Although what?”
Vorador looked reluctant to answer that question and only hesitantly said:
“There may be one who might be able to direct you.”
“Who?” Kain asked slowly with a raised eyebrow, his developed instinct for possible trouble alerting him.
“There is in this world a being older than myself… older even than my sire.” The ancient vampire explained. “She was there when Ba’al transcribed the prophecy.” Kain blinked in sudden wonder. “She is a…”
“A Seer.” He finished for him. Vorador looked at him in surprise.
“You know her?” He asked in clear confusion and bafflement.

“The Seer… The strange woman whom one day Vorador would send me in search of, to find information on the Hylden’s ultimate weapon; the Device. She had sent me to the weapon but had vanished when the Sarafan Lord had attacked her abode in the southern canyons; attempting to burn to ashes both me and the Seer.  I had thought her a strange creature, perhaps gifted with foresight, but this new hint of her true importance was an interesting development.”

“She and I have met… or will meet.” He said, putting his hand to his chin and tapping his cheek with one talon. “She was there? She lived amongst the ancients?”
Vorador chuckled.
“That would not be the way I would put it.” The ancient vampire replied. “She was no more welcome amongst our ancestors than would be the unspoken themselves. Even Janos despised her.” A cheeky sort of amused grin crossed Vorador’s face. “She and Ba’al often met for long, private discussions. The gossip that resulted from that scandalous behaviour was somewhat entertaining.”
Sharing his amusement, Kain tilted his head back.
“More scandalous than your human adoption?”
Vorador’s own smile dropped instantly but Kain cavalierly maintained his own.
“Had Ba’al not been the Balance Guardian he might well have been attacked in the streets for it.” He replied on without rising to the insult. “But he was well enough loved for his leadership that he could afford the risk. But if anyone can give you more specifics on his stories, it would be her.”
Kain was silent to ponder this information.
When he had first met the Seer she had known who he was with a single glance. He had been hard pressed at the time in his quest to destroy the Sarafan and their puppeteers, the Hylden, and had not before considered this abnormality. If this odd woman had indeed been there when the prophecy had been written down then it was completely possibly, in fact quite likely, that not only had she known who he was but had been waiting for him.
Such behaviour Kain had only credited before to Moebius and it left a sour taste in his mouth for the direction this might take him. Now that he had finally rid himself of one manipulator he did not so soon want to be burdened with another.

“Suddenly there was a scream, the high pitched wail of terror that I knew all too well to be the screams of horror emitted by human beings.”

Vorador glanced up in alarm, his ears erect instantly.
“The hunters dare return?” He asked rhetorically in a savage voice. Kain looked around, glaring down the estate towards the far wall. The smell of freshly spilled blood was suddenly thick in the air.
Vorador sniffed and then his eyes widened in utter horror.
“Umah!” He declared, even as he vaulted over the stone banister and jumped down to the courtyard below. Kain followed him instantly, but found himself a little hard-pressed to keep up with the frantic pace the ancient vampire set.
Together they bolted across the courtyard to the far building where the worshippers had been gathered in their preparation to depart. The doors were shut and Kain suspected as bolted.
Vorador did not bother even trying them but raised his talons and sent a bolt of concentrated force directly into the wooden barrier. The door cracked at the impact and fell inward with a loud crash,
Beyond was carnage, the bodies of several worshippers lay slumped in blood soaked black robes against the wall. Their insides had been carved out and splattered across the floor.
Vorador followed the trail of gore without a moment’s hesitation and following, Kain came with him out into a large antechamber with torn and scrapped walls and a dirty ceiling.
He took an involuntary step back at the sight that greeted him.

“These creatures, for there was no other word, were unlike any beings I had ever seen. They walked like men but slouched moving with jerking motions, as if their bodies were forced to the work. Their armour was so archaic that its nature was beyond my knowledge. For a brief moment I pondered if this was another case of Hylden using the bodies of the dead as vessels. But some deep instinct within told me this was something different, something more.”

Whatever these things were they looked human, but their faces were completely emotionless and static. Their skins were sewn together at various places, almost as if it had been stitched back into place. Over their bodies they wore armour that had the faintest resemblance to those of Sarafan, but far more uniform and less emphasised on angelic iconography.
It consisted of a single piece steel breastplate with chainmail greaves and a short paid of pauldrons. They all wore helmets with cheek guards but a few of them were plumed.
There were about four of them and in each of their hands they held a short blade, ideal for close range combat and not as cumbersome as some of the heavier claymore swords.
About their entire being was suffused a faint pale yellow glow, their eyes dull white as if blind.
“Homunculi!” Vorador snarled.
Kain had heard of such creatures but never seen one, finding them only vaguely referred to in whatever scrolls and tomes had been left over from the ancients. No details but rather a simple reference to them as a type of golem, similar to the stone and steel automatons used to protect the ancient’s sites of importance
At the feet of these Homunculus were more of the gutted bodies of the worshippers, all of them ripped to pieces as if set upon by wild animals. All but one; Umah, who lay in a corner with bleeding arms raised before her. Around her body she cast a spell I had used myself more than once, the aegis of Repel.
She was weak from the strain of maintaining the defensive barrier and from her previous loss of blood. Her skin was so pale to be called white, her hair out of its usual plat streaking down the sides of her face.
Each of these strange creatures turned their heads to look at the newcomers. In a synchronized and flat, emotionless voice they declared;
“Mors mortuibus!”
It was the old language, the tongue of the Ancients. Kain knew enough of it to understand.

“The words: Mors mortuibus, Death for the Dead.”

Vorador drew his blade in one swift motion, his serrated steel blade swinging through the air. It came down sharply on the nearest Homunculus, slicing down from the shoulder to the crotch. As the being was cleaved in two, Kain saw that the insides were like liquid and the outside appearance of flesh was little more than an illusion.
As it fell apart, one with a plumed helmet raised its hand to the ancient vampire and said something in the language that Kain did not recognise.
There was a spark and then a sudden flash and Vorador was sent hurtling through the air and then out the window. As the ancient disappeared in a shower of glass, Kain drew the Reaver.
It screamed with anticipation as Kain darted forward far quicker than these creatures could react. Indentifying the one with the plumed helmet as the superior risk, he drove the Reaver straight through its chest, angling the blade up into the head. The liquid insides of these creatures poured out from the wound and the Reaver let out a small, disappointed wail of frustration.
There was nothing for it to devour in this creature. Like the golems of the vampires these puppets were animated not by a soul but by some other arcane means. Savagely he ripped the blade to one side, the action carving the Homunculus in two and letting its liquid inside a foul smelling white ichor to spill over the blood smeared floor.
The two others drew their blades and advanced on Kain.
“Mors mortuibus, Mors mortuibus!” They recanted again and again.
Kain grabbed the nearest around the head as it tried to stab him with its blade and with force, he swung it down into the floor. The impact shattered its head and the Homunculus exploded into its liquids.
In the same motion, Kain swung back up and stabbed the last of these abominations through the neck with the Reaver. The Homunculus struggled even with the blade lodged in its throat. It only became still when Kain slammed a kick through its chest, smashing in its body and letting the insides pour out.
As the last of them collapsed into disgusting remains, Kain drew the Reaver back and sheathed it across his back.
Turning, he saw Umah’s shield drop and she slumped against the side of the wall where she had been crouched. The smell of fresh blood was all too clear and her robes were stained afresh with blood. She had been injured.
Kain advanced over. In her semiconscious state Umah could barely see him as he gathered her body up in his arms and looked her over. She had been cut several times with blades across her chest and she had lost a lot of blood.
Too much blood.
She was dying.

“Umah lay there, the light fading from her eyes. Gathering her up, I held her; watching as she died. I knew precisely what I had to do for now there could be no question.”

This realization was like a knife suddenly twisting inside Kain’s brain, undeniable logic which brought him nothing but pure horror. This was an event which must not be for Umah had to live for her to play her part in his own destiny but the implications of what he must do to correct it were so staggering that every instinct screamed out against it.

“Vorador would not reach her in time and here I was… cradling her broken battered body as she died. My very soul screamed in agony as I did the only thing I could do.”

He bit her. He sank his fangs into her neck, offering her the sweet embrace of the dark gift. Her eyes widened and her mouth became agape. Kain did not drink her blood for that action would have killed her in her present condition but rather instead simply let part of his energy flow from himself to her.
Devoid of the poison of Nupraptor’s madness, her creation would be untainted and free from the threat of the devolving horror that had beset the vampires of his empire. When he drew back from her neck, he held his wrist over her mouth and with one talon he cut himself. The injury was fleeting and would heal nearly instantly but it lasted just long enough for a quantity of his blood to drop into her agape mouth.
She swallowed on reflex, his blood becoming hers in this action.
Kain held her, watching without blinking once. The change began instantly, perhaps hastened by her dire need for restoration.
Her wounds began to heal, closing up and although her colour did not improve her form changed; her ears twisting to become pointed and her canine teeth elongating inside her mouth.
There was another shattering of glass and Vorador leaped back up into the room sword in hand, cut in several pieces by shards of the window pane. He swung about, looking this way and that for the enemy who he expected to be there but instead found only their sloppy remains on the floor.
Then he turned.
“Umah!” He began moving towards them but stopped when Kain turned around.
Umah was unconscious in his arms and her change was clear. “Umah?” Vorador’s tone was now less sure.
He looked upon her and then his eyes slowly wandered up to Kain’s face, his expression one of clear awe and shock.
“Kain you…did you?”

“I said nothing. No words could have explained what I had just done. I had completed a circle of love and betrayal. I had given her new life knowing full well that I had already ripped it from her. Vorador and I had both created this soul together.”

He set her down on the floor before her master.

“Any guilt I had had over what I had done to her in retaliation for her theft of the Nexus Stone was augmented a hundred fold. I had defied the dictates of my stars and in spiteful retaliation they had cursed me to forever bare the knowledge that I had killed yet another one of my own.”