The ship made no sound as it moved through the water, the gleaming and curved metal bow slicing through the waves with ease. It sailed without sails or oars, moving silently out to sea.
Ishtar stood only long enough on the shore to watch the ship depart before he turned and in mid stride, disappeared into a portal conjured by the magic of the Nexus Stone. After seeing the wings Marduk has presented he had made no further argument against the expedition and simply let them go.
The supplies had been loaded onboard, the scholars as well as their bodyguards also. As soon as first light touched the distance horizon the ship had departed.
“South by south west.” One of the Hylden scholars said, checking the course they were taking away from the shore. “At present speed we will keep to our schedule.”
Behind him, Marduk nodded in satisfaction. His blue cloak again covered him, hiding his wings from view but the students around him kept casting glances. They knew what he was hiding under there.
“What is our estimated time of arrival, cousin?” He asked, not paying the looks any sort of attention but conscious of them all the same.
“Three days.” Was the reply and again Marduk nodded.
“Very good.” He then turned and made towards the door leading down into the ship’s interior. His gait was hunched over as if he were an old man, but actually brought about by the extra weight he carried on his back .“I will remain in my cabin for the journey.”
Before he could retire below, one of the Hylden scholars cleared his throat and stepped forward to stop him.
“Maestro …” The new speaker began awkwardly.  Marduk only turned his head, his expression questioning. “A number of us have been wondering… when....” He broke off.
“When will I announce the secret to evolving ones own set of wings?” Marduk finished for him. Behind him on his back, the blue cloak rustled as the limbs within shifted to new resting positions.
The Hylden all around stared, caught up in a spectacular cultural awe. It was no secret that the potential for flight lay in their evolution but so far the only natural advancement had been stretched skin on bone limbs that had permitted little more than limited gliding. This was something more, something out of legend almost, the ancient promise brought to life before their eyes.
“Yes maestro.” The speaker admitted in a hushed whisper.
As if to tease them all, Marduk lifted his cloak a little and his wings stretched and then settled back.
“When the process is feasible on a larger scale.” He declared, looking back over his shoulder to take them all in. “I know my process works but the price paid is a high one.” He paused to grimace, letting his wings settle back and grunting with the effort. “It requires further development before I entrust it to others.”
There was a long silence and then the one who had spoken lowered his head in resignation.
“I understand, maestro.” He declared.
As the ship past by the last few rocky outcroppings of shore, Raziel observed their passage with a brooding eye.
.
“This journey took us out onto the ocean, adrift on the waves as the Hylden ship slowly made its way south. Within a day we were out of sight of the shore and any I was left, a fleeting and stealthy shadow onboard a ship of potential enemies.”
.
He was in a bad humour. The revelation of Hylden wings, his wings, had unnerved him. Not because he felt challenged, being robbed of his own wings for so long had made that consideration moot. But that this was yet another piece of evidence that made him more like the Hylden then the vampires.
Perhaps, despite fulfilling both roles in the prophecy, he was more closely related to the Hylden. That was as something he did not care for very much at all. But then, if he were forced to consider the matter logically, why should it bother him? The Hylden were no different from other races really. Their imprisonment in the demon dimension had warped them in varying degrees but apart from that they were not demons.
In any case neither the humans or, if he was forced to admit it, the vampires were any different. Each race had evils, each had destructive dark side.
If he were to set aside all the bias’ and preconceptions Janos had given him and look at the Hylden, see them for what they truly where.
A people who had endured hell itself for thousands of years, coming together and surviving to get them to a promised land where they might prosper.
After a long and grudging battle with his own bitter thoughts, Raziel was finally forced to admit that the only problem he had with the Hylden were their methods.
The realisation brought him no peace of mind.  
.
“It was not long before hunger made itself known to me. In so many ways I was still a vampire and I would not be able to maintain my physical manifestation without the energy of devoured souls. I dared not however, for the sudden absence of any of these Hylden would immediately be noticed.”
.
He had been fortunate that he had a surplus of energy from an earlier feeding to rely on. If not the long trip would have been much longer indeed.
Still as time began to tick away, his supply began to dwindle.  Raziel did not know where they were going or particularly much curiosity to find out. This was Hylden business. All he wanted was a straight answer out of Marduk.
The ship itself was a maze of metal corridors and storage chambers. Quickly Raziel understood that this ship was powered by machines that required little in the way of oversight. As such the crew was nearly non existent, the only force to be reckoned with where the bodyguards these scholars had brought with them.
.
“Marduk remained closeted in his cabin and did not emerge even once. The only entrance was a single door that was bared and guarded at all times. He took his personal safety very seriously it seemed.”
.
Raziel was once again a wraith, flittering from one end of the ship to the other never seen and never heard. He tired many times to enter that cabin secretly but each time he met with failure. He had tried from above, from below and even from outside climbing across the ships hull. There seemed to be no way in except for that single door.
Having no other choice but to be patient, he resigned himself. Marduk would not stay in there forever. Eventually he would come out; perhaps when they got to where they were going, all he had to do was wait.
Waiting however seldom passes by without the chance for critical reflection. Days were beginning to role by, the ship never wavering on its course. He could not imagine what they sought out here beyond the shores of the mainland. The only land known to be out here were little pieces of scattered and broken rock, not worth the trouble of going.
Soon he began to wonder what had become of Kain.
Was he dead?
Even as that thought past through him, some deep instinct twisted inside him rejecting the possibility.
It was a childish reaction to an unpleasant fact but he clung to it anyway. Surely Kain, of all men, would find a way to survive anything.
The Seer had betrayed him; that she admitted, but betrayed him to what? The memories left over from Kain were too fragmented and hazy to learn much from. Whatever the Seer had abandoned him to was something strong enough to duel with Kain as an equal and defeat him. There were few beings in Nosgoth capable of doing that and none of them would have gotten the drop on him that way.
No… it would have to have been something, or someone new, who Kain had not been expecting.
Whoever it had been must have caught the vampire completely by surprise.
Kain must have had no way of developing a coherent defence before he had been struck down.
Could Kain have survived such an ambush?
Before Raziel could ponder the answer to this question there was a series of loud splashing noises and a hoarse roar, a familiar sound that have him alert instantly. The ship tilted to one side, shuddering with the unexpected addition of weight.
“By the Keeper, what are they!?” A Hylden voice screamed; almost drowned out by the guttural wet growls that seemed to be getting louder.
Raziel was already scrambling out of his hiding place.
Hylden were running across the deck, the guards called out all of them with drawn weapons in their hands. In the chaos Raziel could have walked right out on deck and not have been noticed, their attention wholly captured by whatever was going on.
He kept to the shadow however, sliding across the far side of the vessel.
The guards were fighting something that was trying to come up over the railing, jabbing at whatever it was with long pikes and others shooting with their alien rifles.
Whatever it was doing was not enough, there seems to be a horde of claws and reaching webbed hands trying to come up over the railing.
The scholars stood back, all of them armed with whatever they had to fight with, which was not an impressive arsenal.
“Vampires!”
The moment of them of them yelled that Raziel became immediately interested. Swiftly he climbed out onto the bow of the ship, swinging out so he could peer around and see what was happening directly.
.
“They were right. These creatures were vampires indeed and I knew what kind, the only sort that could possibly be out here on the waves.”
.
They were sleek creatures, streamlined with slimy translucent skin. Gils opened alongside of heads that fanned out like a cobra frill, ending in sort ugly snouts. Then their lips parts, they revealed a mouth full of sharp teeth, with two long sets of fangs that curved out and snapped together with an audible clacking.
Their hands and feet were webbed, talons transformed into striking short claws for rending prey underwater.
In pairs they tried to assail the ship, snarling and snapping at the Hylden who tried to drive them back but there always seemed to be more coming up to take their place.
.
“The children of my brother, Rahab.”
.
The Ruhabim, vampires adapted so well to such adverse conditions that they had actually overcome the acidic touch of water. Like their father, the monstrously deformed Rahab, they had devolved into little more than animals so lurks in stagnant water to ambush prey and drag it under.
Without Rahab to hold them together, they had wandered out using whatever waterway they could find to expand their hunting territory.
Now they had spread into the open ocean and adapted again, coming together as a pack to attack the ship.
Turning, Raziel looked over at the far side of the deck where, just as he expected came more of them, climbing up over the unguarded railing while their fellows provided a distraction.