Without Shamash to enforce their servitude, the Hylden grip on the human citadel was shattered. The humans, to a man, turned on the intruders with upmost savagery. Over the centuries of their isolation behind the walls of this defended keep they had grown ruthlessly protective of this perceived territory.
Cries of rage and the clash of metal rang through the narrow streets of the city.
One human had had the interesting idea of setting loose a horde of chained demons from the paddock where the Hylden had kept them. Unleashed, the demons turned with bloodthirsty savagery on their former taskmasters.
Raziel watched from within his hijacked Hylden body, amused at the concept of humans and demons fighting side by side. He had no doubt they would turn on each other the moment the Hylden were repulsed but the moment of unity was interesting to see none the less.
Raziel’s new ability was not without drawbacks. As with all skills taken from the souls of adversaries, his was a novice’s version and he found that the longer he occupied a foreign body the more that body decayed.
The Hylden he wore was rotting, turning green and purifying in places. He made a mental note to keep that flaw in mind. While this ability was excellent for espionage it would not do him any good if his disguise decomposed when he needed it.
Sliding out of the body was akin to a surfacing out of deep water. With sudden jerks he pulled his arms free and then the rest of him came out, pushing out of the Hylden’s back. Once he was separated, the body collapsed face first into the dirt on the side of the cliff face from which he had been watching events unfold. It crumbled into dust within moments and its remains were carried away by the wind.
While shattering the domination was satisfying in a petty sort of way it had not furthered his purpose in finding Janos Audron. Shamash had not been forthcoming with his information but other there were other Hylden leaders around, Ishtar included, and one of them would know where the ancient vampire was being held captive.
Raziel steadfastly refused to look the other difficulties he would have to overcome before and after the intended rescue. If he let his mind wander now to all the obstacles that would undoubtedly present themselves he would never be able to concentrate.
There was a rustling noise from above and Raziel spun instantly, talons held wide as he looked up into the darkening twilight above.
Dropping down to crouch there before him was one of the winged blue ancients that he had seen before, fighting Hylden scouts in the ruins of his clan territory. There could be mistaking that she was one of them as he recalled her being the one who had been hit in the soldier by a project from a Hylden weapon, that injury now bandaged with canvas clothe.
“And so we meet, strange one.” She said quite formally, straightening up and tucking her wings back behind herself.
“You came to our aid against the Unspoken once before and here I find you inspiring revolution amongst the humans.”
She gestured towards the Citadel, still engulfed in Chaos and smiled, a weary sort of smile that told of personality trying to find something to find amusing at the fear that if she did not she would go insane. “Clearly our interests coincide.”
“For the moment, possibly.” Raziel replied, cocking his head to one side and examining her.
She was a head and shoulders taller than himself and her hair was cropped back into a short ponytail. Her armour carved to fit her frame and very archaic; the blue wraith remembered seeing its style depicted in murals before. At her sides were sheathed two short blades, the hilts turned up and out for easy use.
“I am Ajatar, grandmaster of the Serioli order.” She introduced herself, holding her posture erect.
“And an ancient besides.” Raziel commented in return. “I had thought only Janos Audron to be the surviving member of your race.”
The look of sudden despair and anguish that crossed her face at those words had not been at all what he had been expecting but she quickly mastered herself and took in a deep soothing breath.
“Then our civilisation did fall.” She began, her voice forcing itself to be flat and toneless. “We had no way of verifying that when we were brought forward… but I had hoped…” She drew a cloven hand across her face as to not betray herself again.
Raziel raised an eyebrow quizzically.
“Brought forward?” He repeated in puzzlement.
Ajatar looked at him between the gaps in her talons for a moment. Then she lowered her hand began, saying slowly;
“We once lived alongside the first of the Circle of Nine and fought many battles with the uprising lead by Moebius the Time streamer.” Saying the name of the now dead guardian the muscle under her left eye twitched in a reaction of suppressed hate, the feathers of her wings rustling in accompaniment.
“We might have perished there.” Then she soothed herself and managed a smile “We owe our lives and our fealty to the Scion of Balance.”
Raziel started, almost taking a step back in surprise.
“Kain?” He asked.
Ajatar looked equally taken aback.
“You know lord Kain?” She asked, sounding amazed. Raziel stared at her with wide eyes and after a moment let out a single burst of laughter.
“Perhaps better than anyone.” He said. “Where is he?”
The look on the ancient’s face in reaction was not one that inspired confidence and Raziel felt a pit forming in his stomach even before she started.
“We lost him.” She said, sinking down to sit on the side of a blunted rock.  “He stayed behind to ensure that our enemies did not follow us through vortex of time he opened for us.”
And so she explained to him what had happened, how Kain had come back through time to seek clues that would lead him to a way to assume his destiny and had purified their sight of the Serioli so that they might fight the invisible enemy that beset them.
For them to survive Kain had taken them to Moebius’ hidden chamber where the Chronoplast device would bring them forward to this time. However they had been ambushed by an army of marionettes called Homunculi and in the confusion, the Serioli had come forward and Kain had been left behind.
Her story fitted in with whatever bits and pieces left over from Kain himself that Raziel was able to recall and make sense of. Now he felt that he had a good idea of what had taken place, with a few large gaps here and there.
Exactly what happened to Kain he still did not know but at least now he knew what Kain had been doing up until his betrayal by…
As if summoned by his thought, she appeared, translocating herself to them in a luminous flash.
The Seer.
Ajatar was on her feet in a moment but the Hylden women held up a hand to restrain her.
 “Fortunate indeed is this serendipitous crossroads, the three of us.” She said to them both. “This will indeed make a much needed council far more remunerative.”
-
“I had half expected my reaction to her second appearance would be to immediately leap upon her body, rending it apart with my bare talons. Yet the momentary cloud of Kain’s inherited anger had passed and so I merely regarded her now with weary patience.”
-
Raziel stared at her, noting that she was well out of reaching distance of either himself or Ajatar, giving her the option of translocation in chase of any violence.
“You are… Hylden.” Ajatar said, forgetting momentarily that saying the name of the enemy race was a taboo amongst her kind.
“She is the Seer.” Raziel stated flatly. Ajatar glanced to him sharply and then back to the Seer.
“And she is Grandmaster Ajatar Cadere, of the Seroli order of elemental warriors and smiths. We know of each other.” The Hylden women replied, a tad warily. She turned to look fully at Ajatar. Her expression was bland but her eyes were frosty.
“Nothing to say to one of my race, Vampire?” She asked, her voice deceptively bland.
“Neither curses nor apologies.”  The grandmaster of the Serioli replied immediately, meeting that cold stare with one of her own. “If you are indeed ‘the’ Seer then you would not require or desire either.”
There was a moment of silence and then the Seer smiled.
“And you are correct in your assumption.” She said.
The tension seems to leak out of the air around them and Raziel, who had been tightly wound to spring despite himself relaxed a little.
“Neither of you have cause to trust me.” The Seer said and looked at him, holding her expression tightly to one of utter neutrality. “Especially not you, my lord saviour….but I would beg of you both to hear me out. If you would give me that much then I will provide the assistance needed by all here.”
Raziel was disinclined to maintain hatred for any reason. He had learned that lesson when he had forgiven Kain for having him cast into the abyss. As Ariel had put it, ‘Those blinded by rage are by destiny ensnared,’ and he was not going to be bitter when he had other more important things to do.
But still it was only prudent to at the very least be on his guard.
“What assistance could you offer that I would need?” He asked to this end.
“Ajatar here, if my surmising is correct, requires a defendable keep or castle… a safe place she can bring her people.” The seer began.
The ancient vampire blinked and shifted, looking a tad taken aback by such deduction. Her confusion was momentary and she quickly assumed a look of unconcern. She said nothing.
“And you my lord…” The Seer then began looking at him now. “Desperately seek information on the whereabouts of Janos Audron.”
Now it was his turn to be surprised. Knowing that Ajatar needed a fort might have been a guess, given her current situation but his specific intent for Janos Audron was a lot more specific.
“How did you know that?” Raziel demanded in a harsh voice.
“An immaterial concern.” The Seer replied so quickly she almost interrupted him.
“If you know where he is…”
“I do not but I do know who does.”
Raziel stopped himself, only now aware that he had taken a few steps towards her. The Seer was staring back at him tensely, knowing full well of how intense his anger could be and prepared now to defend herself. Ajatar was watching them both, her wings fluttering a little almost in preparation for flight.
“And you will only give me this flimsy lead if I offer you something in return?” The blue wraith queried in a cold tone.
“Perhaps at a later date.” The Seer admitted. “But for right now all I desire is that you listen.”
-
“I was suddenly struck by the thick and enveloping sense of déjà-vu. Had this not happened before to me? Yes... it had. I had been standing before Kain at the Pillars and he had asked me to indulge him and ask that I listen to what he had to say. I had heeded that plea once before and it had been the right choice. My instincts told me that I would take no harm from heeding it again.”
-
Raziel shook himself as if to clear his thoughts and deliberately forced his entire body to relax.
Even if he not trust the source he could not turn down information that he badly needed. So he nodded to both Ajatar and the Seer and then sat down on the ground, looking at them expectantly.
Ajatar glared for a moment but then followed suite, sitting down with her wings curving around her body protectively.
Smiling, the Seer was the last to sit.
Now it was her turn to talk and they listened to her. She spoke of the Hylden and their imprisonment within the demon dimension. She told them of how her people, desperate to survive had tamed the native demons, built a scavenging empire in the otherworldly realm and had sought any way to return.
Explained in detail was the Hylden culture, of their three houses of Knowledge, Faith and War. Ruling over them all had been a high king, their general and head of state; Hash, ak, Gik.
It had been his plan to manipulate events in Nosgoth as to allow a dimensional rift to occur. This allowed the Hylden to re-enter the world and bring about the rule of the second Sarafan order.
Raziel had known of this era from Kain, who told of it in his many boastful stories he liked to tell of his fledgling years. Hearing that it had only been brought about as a result of the tampering with causality he had helped do filled Raziel with an intense chill.
He remembered the stories Kain told him vividly but had his journey through time not occurred then those stories would never have existed. Had his memories been altered along with the timeline without him even being aware of it?
The purpose of this temporary incursion, the Seer went on explaining, had been divided amongst the people.
Hash’ak’gik had wanted to use an ancient weapon called ‘The Mass’ to wipe out all other life in Nosgoth and claim the land there and then. His haste had cost him his life when the younger Kain confronted him at the very gate he had created.
Ishtar however, leader of the house of Faith, had opted for a more long term solution. He used those two centuries of Sarafan rule to soak radiation native to the demon dimension, into Nosgoth itself.
There that radiation, called Glyph energy, remained waiting.
When the Pillars finally crumbled here, in this time, the resulting backlash triggered the planted pockets of energy and the barrier keeping the Hylden imprisoned collapsed entirely.
And thus were the Hylden unbound, the ancient binding Janos had been so desperate to maintain had faded into nothingness.
When she ended her story, Raziel sat there a long time in a thoughtful silence.
Ajatar was stiff and rigid, her expression disapproving as if she had sat through a blasphemous lecture. She had not interrupted however and her eyes were clearly troubled.
“And so now do you understand, my lord?” The Hylden woman asked, looking at him. Raziel looked up, meeting his gaze flatly.
“The question rather should be ‘what should I understand.’” He corrected her. “I understand that you are a skilled manipulator and one with their own agenda that that most likely it does not coincide with my own.”
The Seer smiled whimsically in reply.
“But I fear what is lacking for me is an alternative option.” Raziel concluded with a hint of bitterness. He stood up. “For the moment I will accept your story and concede that your desire is the wellbeing of your people.”
Ajatar looked at him and then nodded herself, agreeing and understanding, if only grudgingly.
“And now comes the time for you to do what you said.” She said, cutting through the talk to the matter that interested her. “My people require a sanctuary.”
“And I will be more then happy to lead you to one.” The Seer replied, curiously as she and Ajatar got to their feet.
“But first, my Lord and Saviour…” Her expression was serious and Raziel paid attention.
“Far to the south at the edge of the great ocean many of my kind gather for an expedition. They are members of the House of knowledge.
They are scholars, researchers and alchemists. They will have bodyguards but they are not skilled warriors.
Their leader is Marduk, the arch-scientist of our people. He is no fanatic like Shamash was and would be more inclined to surrender to you the knowledge you seek should the impetus be right.”
Raziel paused, considering this. It was a long way from these cliffs to the Southern ocean but the trip would indeed be worth the effort if the Seer was indeed telling the truth.
“This does not mean that we are allies, Seer.” He warned her, looking up.
“I do what I must, my lord.” She replied. “Given how close you were to Kain, I would have thought that you would understand what that means.”