Raziel kept still, slowly adjusting his posture to be as none threatening as he possibly could. There was nothing to be gained in a violent confrontation with the ancient vampire, regardless of the outcome.
“Daughter?”  He asked instead in a disarming way. Vorador regarded him stonily for another few moments and then turned his head to regard the chameleon Sally, who was prudently keeping out of the way of this confrontation.
“Sally, bring me sustenance.” He ordered sharply and in response she bowed deeply in respect instantly.
“Yes my sire.” She replied and left the chamber, hurrying away past them.  Raziel turned back to face Vorador again but the ancient walked past him as well, gesturing with one talon.
“Come.” He said, indicating Raziel to follow him. Raziel hesitated a moment, taken aback by the sharp summons but then relented and move to follow he ancient vampire.
Vorador said nothing as they walked and every movement he made showed signs of his weakness after so long a sleep. His posture was not quite so firm, his stance slackened at times and he slumped forward perceptively. He was in desperate need of blood but he carried on regardless, leading him up a flight of winding stone stairs.
At the top was a small corridor that had only one door leading off from it. This Vorador pushed open and stepped inside. Following, Raziel looked upon an elaborate bedroom. There was an unoccupied double bed set with sheets and large pillows against a far wall and a thick glass window facing the storm outside to the left. Rain ran down the outside and occasional flashes of lightning lit up the room.
Set into one side of the wall was a notch above an old, unused fireplace and sitting atop this was a large urn like container. Compared to the rest of the ornate room it was fairly bland.
What drew Raziel’s eye was the outfit lying across the bed, neatly folded and pressed. Some tight fitting stockings and a bodysuit, along with an engraved shoulder pad complete with drape. It caught his eye because they were the same clothes he had seen that female vampire in the portrait downstairs wear.
“Kain took her from me.” Vorador began speaking and Raziel turned around to see him standing before the urn, looking down at it. “She was the last person I truly thought of as my family.”
He bunched his shoulders taking a deep breath and then let it roll out as if the action would allow him to exhale all his pain and woe.
“Umah, the very child he gave the dark gift to. The very one he saved from the homunculi.” He half turned and looked at Raziel with a sad smile. “I can only imagine the pain it must have given him, saving her life knowing full well he had already taken it.”
Having a few scattered pieces of Kain’s memories, along with what the Seer had told him to flesh it out, Raziel could understand what had happened.
Kain had spoken once to his sons of ‘Umah’, he had simply said that she had had an opportunity to stand by his side as Empress but she had forfeited that right by her treachery.
“During our final battle with the Sarafan Lord here on this very island, I was badly wounded and forced to stay behind.” Vorador was saying. “My sire went to aid Kain against our enemy but he never came back. Only Kain returned from the confrontation, carrying his reclaimed blade the Soul Reaver.”
So Janos had joined the battle against the Hylden, Raziel pondered? He must have been captured and then pulled into the collapsing gate, entrapped with the Hylden in the demon dimension.
Only now to be released as the Hylden began to reoccupy Nosgoth.
“With no where else to go, I returned to Meridian. Foolishly perhaps, I dared to hope that Kain was wrong and there was something worth saving of my daughter.”
He reached out and laid a hand softly, even tenderly, on the urn.
“All I could do when I got there was retrieve the ashes of her corpse from the Sarafan bonfires.”
He said it in such a way Raziel knew it was taking him a great deal of effort to force his voice to be neutral.
Vorador’s next words however were anything but neutral.
“I would trade anything; my heart, my blood or even my head again if it could see her brought back.”
Raziel paused to piece together what he knew of this Umah so that he a clearer picture of the events Vorador was describing which he had never witnessed.
“I had heard Kain speak of Umah before.” He said offhandedly. Vorador’s face went flat.
“And what did he say?” He inquired.
“That she could have been his queen.”
Silence prevailed again, broken only patter of the rain outside and the distant boom of thunder.
During this time of quiet reflection and silent ceasefire, Sally arrived with the sustenance Vorador had ordered. In one hand she held a stylised green bottle and in the other was a golden chalice. She handed the cup to her master who held the cup out to be filled. Blood, ice cold and kept in storage, ran smoothly out into the bottle top and into the chalice.
The ancient vampire drank deeply, downing the contents down. Almost as soon as he had swallowed, some of his normal green colour began to come back into his face. Raziel let him restore some of his vitality before he spoke again.
“I can see you do not wish to even discus it but I will say why I have come anyway.” He began sternly. He waited to speak until Vorador was halfway through another refill, not willing to give him any means to protest.
Sally tensed a little, watching her sires face. Vorador continued to drink but the ancient’s attention was definitely on Raziel again.
Wanting to get his undivided attention the blue wraith got straight to the point.
“Janos Audron still lives.”
Sally’s eyes went wide despite herself and her expression was a mix of awe and sudden hope, then she looked at Vorador and that all faded into a fearful apprehension.
Vorador had been finishing another serving and instantly his face went flat, stony and devoid of the barest hint of emotion. Despite how hungry he still must be he let half a cup full of blood remain in the chalice he held as he turned to look at Raziel with cold disdain.
“You must think me blind and senile to use such a transparent attempt to manipulate me.” He said and glared past him out the window. “Janos is dead.”
He ancient briefly swirled the contents of his cup in his talons before he drank it again.
“Just another one of my family Kain did not bother to save.”
By now Vorador pessimistic attitude was getting on Raziel’s nerves. He glared back at the ancient defiantly.
“But I do.” He said, fully tired of being labelled with all of Kain’s misdeeds. “Janos means just as much to me as he does to you.”
Vorador did not rise to that, continuing to drink the blood handed to him silently. The whole process began to slowly infuriate Raziel.
“I knew by the mere fact he joined us to fight the Hylden lord that you must have succeeded in reviving him.” The ancient mused. “You found the Heart of Darkness?”
When Raziel said nothing, Vorador just nodded as if Raziel had given him the affirmative.
“At least you did that right.”
The Vorador that Raziel had know had been a cynical but determined being that could withstand anything Nosgoth had to throw at him. Seeing him now, reduced to someone barely alive in his own mind, was disgusting.
“You were once a powerful leader, Vorador.” Raziel began, unable to stop himself now that he had given vent to his frustration. “Kain told us that. He told us of how you led the resistance through two centuries of a brutal Sarafan occupation.”
Vorador grimaced a little at the reminder and Raziel pressed on.
“You killed six of the Circle of Nine all by yourself. You singlehandedly brought the original Sarafan crusade to its knees and created a new race of vampires to replace those destroyed by the Time streamer.”
The blue wraith shook his head.
“I don’t see that leader and grand patriarch before me. I see a defeated ruin of a once proud man.” He dismissed Vorador with a weary wave of one hand. “It’s pathetic.”
His words had some effect as a hint of anger was creeping across Vorador’s face, a steady undoing of all the weary resignation that had set itself into him. He opened his mouth to speak and then suddenly there was a crashing noise, a slamming of stone on stone.
.
“Shouts, yells and the unmistakable sound of armed men interrupted Vorador before he could begin to speak. The voices were familiar enough. The Hylden had discovered the castle.”
-
.Raziel rushed to the window and there they were, coming up a barely distinguishable cliff path towards the keep. It had to be the entire ships crew and scholars, all armed with whatever they could find to use as a weapon. Their bodyguards and crew were more armed. They were no trained fighting force but their numbers and seeming enthusiasm more than made up for it.
.
“They gathered at the edge of the plateau for a march up to the castle gates. Leading them at the front of their horde was Marduk.”
.
The figure with those large membranous wings were unmistakable as it flew, outlined in the flashes of lightning.
“Deceit!” Vorador barked savagely, turning on Raziel with fangs bared and flinging aside his cup. “You bring an army to my door!”
Raziel swore inventively.
“They are Hylden, Vorador.” He told the enraged ancient vampire. “No allies of mine.”
This seemed to stop him before his rage could grow any further.
“Hylden?!” He repeated I surprise, his ears twitching. “That can not be!”
Raziel stepped away from the window and gestured for him to take his place.
“Take a look for yourself.”
Vorador did so, staring down at the advancing horde coming towards him. Having fought with Kain against them all those years ago and having also lived once with the ancient, he would know precisely what Hylden looked like.
“How…” He began, stunned out of his misery. “Even corrupted and crumbling the Pillars should still have…”
“The Pillars had turned to dust.” Raziel cut him off and Vorador’s eyes bulged in horror. “The binding is gone. There is nothing holding them in the demon dimension anymore.”
The blue wraith leaned forward, his tone now insistent.  
“Janos lives, taken prisoner by the Hylden… probably during the fight with the Sarafan lord in this very city.”
By the anguish reflected in Vorador’s eyes it was clear that he wanted to believe Raziel but something was stopping him. He turned his face away, snarling.
“You toy me, creature.”
By now Raziel had had enough. He threw up both hands in a timeless gesture of profound frustration and disgust.
“Believe what you wish to believe, Vorador!” The blue wraith proclaimed almost shaking with anger. “I came here hoping for an ally I could use in rescuing Janos. But if all you desire now is to cowardly hide here in this old ruin and sleep your days away then so be it!”
He pushed past roughly past a stunned Sally and stormed from the room, talons twitching.
“I will face the Hylden myself, their entire species one by one if need be!” He called back, his voice echoing even over the sounds of the oncoming attack.
.
“I was not thinking clearly, I knew, but Vorador’s dismissive attitude had irritated me to the point where caution was thrown to the wind. I would vent my frustration not on him for that would accomplish nothing, but Marduk on the other hand was the perfect surrogate.”