The bloodlust was upon me no more. The sacrifice that Raziel, my onetime Lieutenant and my only ally in the quest against the dark powers that controlled Nosgoth’s fate, chose out of the free will that he alone in the realm possessed – the choice to comply with his fate, and enter the blade of the Soul Reaver, the weapon I now bore, the eternal prison fashioned for him by our vampire ancestors – this sacrifice purified me; and in my purity, I lost the gift that, of all those bestowed by my vampiric form, I had once treasured the most. The blood that flowed in the veins of living beasts would upon entering mine nourish me no more.
I did not mourn the loss; for in its place, I was granted a new gift, a new source of sustenance.
This, I discovered upon my departure from the Citadel of the Ancients. In that place, I at last faced and fought the abomination that dwelt there, the false god that had previously repeatedly attempted to cheat me of my destiny – but, ever until the time of my healing, had remained hidden from my eyes. I left the scene of our confrontation wounded, yet victorious – and soon afterwards, my wounds closed and my strength returned.
The Pillar of Balance provided for its own.
The Pillars, raised aeons ago by the same vampires who had forged the Soul Reaver, had been intended to hold off their ancient enemies, the Hylden, from Nosgoth. That barrier had not proven infallible – the Hylden eventually broke out of the demon dimension to which they had been bound. Led by a powerful sorcerer, they brought the Pillars down, having first poisoned the minds of the Circle of Guardians that had been called to watch over them. I had been one of those Nine; and like all others, I too had fallen to the taint.
Now, however, I was healed, and the Pillars and I were joined again by a symbiotic bond. This was the source of my newfound strength – for even shattered as they were, the Pillars would nourish me, as they had done for their Guardians of old, when the Circle had not yet been broken. Weakness and poison had only recently settled in the land, and Nosgoth had not yet lost her vitality.
However, my next battle was to be fought many years into the future, when all the time-streams that had parted and looped before were joined again; in the old and dying land that Nosgoth would become in the millennia that I would rule it with the aid of Raziel and my other Lieutenants; a land where the vampires that would have once been the children of my children would have turned into mindless beasts; where the Pillars would be almost devoid of their powers.
There, in that land of corruption and decay, the Scion of Balance was awaited; and I would not be found lacking in my duties.
The latter days of Nosgoth were finally to arrive.
