Raziel glared at Ishtar furiously.
“Explain yourself Hylden!” He demanded. Ishtar tilted his head to one side with a wide sadistic grin.
“I always find the sheer volume of ignorance that the vampires display amusing.” He remarked, tapping one elongated finger against the side of his almost skeletal nose. “That knowledge was once common to even the smallest of your fledglings and is now a jealously guarded arcane secret.” He let out a short barking laugh at some private joke. “Ba’al Zebur was a fool to declare us ‘unspoken’.” He added almost as a non sequitur.
 “It seems they have even forgotten the hand to struck them down and forced them into the shadows to feed on bloody meat like animals.”
Raziel continued to fix him with a level and piercing glare.
“Are you saying that you are the creator of vampirism?”
The murals he had seen had always shown that the Hylden had been the ones to curse the vampires with the Dark gift but they had never gone into specifics, just a broad and simple generalisation.
“I contributed.” Ishtar admitted with a shrug. “As leader of the House of Faith, I was one of three who combined their efforts in delivering our vengeance to the vampires.”
The glee and perverted satisfaction was clear in his voice and Raziel narrowed his eyes in distaste.
 “I and the leaders of the House of War and the House of Knowledge nearly drained ourselves, but the effort was well worth the trouble.
Secure in their smug and arrogance victory the vampires were unprepared and quickly fell to the infection.”
The Hylden Priest, at least at first sight, was typical of those Raziel had seen thus far; filled with malice and hatred for anything resembling a vampire. But still there was that continued sense of something more, some calmer brooding personality within and Raziel began to suspect that this more common attitude was little more than a façade.
“So it was you.” He said with controlled anger.
“Of course.” Ishtar admitted without a moment’s hesitation but then his expression grew puzzled and thoughtful. “But even we could never have imagined the vampires, the original blue skinned fanatics, to be filled with a zeal that would drive them to commit suicide. That surprised even the most vengeful of any us.”
Raziel knew of that of course, even Janos Audron had confirmed as much. That when the Elder had turned his back on the vampires, for their involuntary separation from his Wheel of Fate, many of them had been so devastated that they had committed suicide on a large scale. 
“I had thought that only Janos Audron was left of the original bloodline.” Ishtar was saying, clearly following one thought on from the other almost rambling. Raziel had noticed that when he spoke, he tended to carry on without more direction. But then when he said; “And that with his acquisition their stain could finally be removed from Nosgoth. Yet my scouts reported combating a group of them not far from here.” … Raziel snapped his head up and stared at him with widening eyes.
“Janos!” He began in a voice loud enough to echo through the room. “You have Janos?!”
Desperate to avoid his destiny, Raziel had sought a way to revive Janos Audron in the hope that the ancient vampire might be able to release him from the curse of the Reaver. But in the event, all of that had been part of the plan of the Hylden General who had abandoned Mortanious’ frayed body to take over Janos’. Raziel had battled with the possessed ancient but when the time had come to strike the final blow, he found that he could not bring himself to deliver the final blow and kill him.
The Hylden general had used that break in the action to recover and destroy Raziel’s physical form and had escaped, taking Janos with him.
It had been a great source of personal guilt for Raziel, knowing of the suffering he had put Janos through. The first time he had lead the Sarafan to his doorstep and the second had condemned him to the servitude of his enemies.
Ishtar laughed, the sound thick with perverted mirth.
“Audron… the court jester.” He declared and Raziel began to bristle. “Play thing of the houses and an entertainment to be abused at leisure.”
The blue wraith took an angry step forward.
“Where is he?!” He demanded. “What have you done with him?”
Ishtar sneered back.
“What difference can that make?” He asked and then his grin widened. “Oh… well now, actual concern?” It was not so much a question as a deduction and his voice was tinged with a mocking overtone. “How remarkable. He actually does mean something to you doesn’t he?”
Raziel could feel himself loosing control of his temper. He began to move toward the Hylden, talons twitching
“Where is he?” He repeated. Ishtar glanced up and down when he realised that now, battle was inevitable.
“Where he can do some good for once in his miserable existence.” He said and slowly let his arms trail out to either side in preparation. “Do not think you can cross us Raziel.” He added, his voice becoming cold as his pretences fell away and he became rigidly focused. “Our saviour you might be but if you stand in our way we will destroy you.”
Now Raziel was pushed past caution. He lunged, talons outstretched.
Ishtar side stepped, dodging the slash. He was fast, his wiry frame giving him great agility and dexterity.
Raziel rebounded and lashed again but once more Ishtar dodged, ducking under the darting talons. His manoeuvrability as so acute he seemed to bend almost like the air itself, moving graceful and so quickly it made it look as Raziel was moving in slow motion.
As Raziel turned, there was a spark and then a sudden flash of light.
-
“Inconceivable as it might have been, I actually watched as his soul pushed its way out of his body and then manifested as a wall of energy. As it struck, I felt for a brief moment the Hylden priest’s malice and hatred as if it were a part of my own thoughts.”
-
It looked, in the brief instant before the attack hit him, like a projection of Ishtar himself made out of pure light. It moved with the speed at which light travels, slamming into the blue wrath and the impact rattled Raziel from head to toe.
He was thrown several feet before he collapsed to the ground, gasping for air. Even his matted hair felt itself in pain, a general agony distributed evenly over his entire body.
“How did you...” He gasped, struggling to rise.
Ishtar’s expression did not change, remaining cold and emotionless as he came near.
“All matter in the universe is energy Raziel.” He said. “And as I am sure you are well aware, the soul itself is an acute source of energy.”
That was something Raziel was not ignorant of in the least. His sustenance came from souls, the older and more experienced the better the meal.
“I have learned to project mine and make it a weapon.” Ishtar explained. “Once directed it can not be stopped.”
Shaking the numbness in his off away, Raziel managed to climb back up to his feet although he was still shaky.
Without so much as a twice of one eye, Ishtar unleashed his soul again with a flash at him.
But now Raziel was prepared for it and dodged, sliding to the right just in time and as the priests soul rocketed by he could feel its burning hatred.
Hoping to catch him off guard Raziel ran forward, thinking that while his soul was projected Ishtar’s body was vulnerable
It certainly looked that way as the Hylden stood their completely motionless, but at the last second his soul flew back and poured into his body down his mouth.
Raziel’s talons were inches away from slamming into his body when the Hylden moved, propelling himself to the side with another burst of soul energy.
Not only could he unleash it outside his own body it seemed, but also he could use it to propel his physical form to incredible feats of strength and speed. Even Raziel’s vampirically enhanced reflexes could not keep up with him as the Hylden began to almost literally fly back and forth, as fleeting as the wind itself and as intangible as a cloud.
Acting on desperation Raziel reached out with one hand and tried to hold him in place during telekinesis.
It had some pleasing effect. Ishtar did indeed stop, an expression of profound irritation marking his calm face, but only for a moment.
A struggle of minds began between them, one trying to dominate the other.
Ishtar’s mind was like ice and trying to grasp it with his own, Raziel felt a dreadful numbing beginning to ebb through him. It was like some insidious poison, an infection that he felt himself taking on the more and more he was in contact with it.
Finally driven past the point of endurance, Raziel let go of his mental grip and tried to swing away.
Ishtar however did not give him the opportunity, propelling himself almost directly up in front of the blue wraith; his green eyes cold and flintily.
In that moment Raziel knew that he was outclassed.
“You can’t defeat me Raziel.” The Hylden said. Raziel tried to take several steps back but Ishtar lashed out and grabbed his hand, holding him in place.
Then, slowly he pulled aside the red robe in front of himself.
“Not while I have this.”
Attached to his chest underneath the robe was an elaborate collection of golden jewel, much the same as he wore around his head. It crisscrossed over his shoulder, with a central piece directly in the middle.
There, attached to him by thin golden chains was an ornate piece with dull green gemstone centre, its style setting it out of place in the arrangement. It was covered in different markings and almost scarab like in shape.
But the fashion statement was of little importance to other, far more devastating affects.
-
“At the sight of the stone, I felt a deep, enveloping sense of weakness. My strength fled as is routed and I dropped to me knees, unable to rise. It felt as if I was dying slowly, each part of me fading away into nothingness.”
-
Without having to even strike him down Ishtar had reduced Raziel to a crumbled invalid, writhing in his grip as if stricken with fever.  
He collapsed to his knees instantly, only held up by Ishtar’s grip on his arm. He gasped, straining as if he could not get enough air. With wide eyes, he stared at the stone and the longer he stared the more he felt himself dying.
“I’m sure Kain would have told you about this trinket.” Ishtar began, tapping the green stone with his free hand. “It’s called the Nexus Stone.”
Even in the midst of his fading strength Raziel had a flash of recognition at the name. Kain had indeed mentioned this relic before, the Nexus Stone… the very artefact that helped him defeat the Sarafan Lord centuries ago.
“With it, one can bend space to create doorways between one point and another, regardless of distance.” Ishtar carried on, seeing the sudden horror on the blue wraiths face. “But it also has another far more useful feature.”
He let Raziel drop with a loud cracking thud onto the floor and kneeled down to watch him writhe there.
“It was created by the last Hylden king and he intended it to be used to protect his people from the Vampires ultimate weapon, the Soul Reaver.” The Priest said, his voice becoming menacingly soft. “It renders the soul devouring power of the blade inert and lifeless.”
With his left hand, he reached to his chest and with a clinking noise disconnected the stone from the rest of the display. Deliberately he held it closer, almost in front of Raziel’s face.
 “That is to say, it renders YOU inert and lifeless.”
-
“I could not move. In the stone’s presence I was as helpless as a new born child. I struggled to rise, to escape… but it was in vain.”
-
His struggling ceased; the strength to even move his arms fled from him. All he could do was lie there like a ragdoll, unable to defend himself from the insidious effects of the relic.
He truly felt like he was going to die, as if once the stone completed its work… his very essence would dissipate forever.
“Goodbye Raziel.” Ishtar said with a note of finality in his voice. “It is truly a shame that we could not work together.”
Raziel tempered on the verge, as if in a moment he might plunge of the edge into that black abyss of death that he had escaped for so long.
There had been moments, even when he had been a vampire clan leader, when he considered what death would be like. The final end, where all thought and conscience ceased and not even the reach of the Elder could draw it back. If this was indeed it then the prospect filled him with fresh and unbearable terror and in his panic, he did the only thing he could do.
-
“Left with no other options, I felt go my hold on the physical plane and gratefully slipped back into the spectral realm. As I retreated, I felt the debilitating effects of the Nexus Stone fade and as I lay there, I could feel my strength slowly return.”
-
Ishtar vanished along with that dreadful stone, the chamber taking on a greenish tint and warping hideously in the guise of the spirit world.
It took a long time it seemed for Raziel to recover. Perhaps ten minutes had gone by before he had enough strength left to push himself up into a sitting position and perhaps twenty more before his body stopped trembling.
Even when he felt well enough to get back up through he sat there, head hanging as he tried to calm his racing thoughts.
The Hylden priest had been the first once to bring him to the point of utter annihilation. Even the Elder had not done that and that threat and his very real means of carrying it out, shook him tremendously.
Then some of his pride began to reassert itself. He had conquered the Reaver and survived its test with his sanity intact. He would not succumb to fear again, not to this threat.
His eyes narrowing, Raziel began to stand back up; new more positive thoughts running through his mind.
-
“As humiliating as my defeat had been, it had given me purpose. I now had a role to fulfil here.”
-
Ishtar’s threat had come with the gift of purpose and once that Raziel felt more than obliged to embrace.
-
“Janos Audron… he had been my mentor and most dedicated supporter. He had been the only being that could ever be considered to be completely ‘on my side’.
-
He looked down at his right hand where the Reaver had once coiled itself as his weapon.
-
“It was my fault that he now lies within the clutches of his enemies. I had abandoned him to eons of torture.”
-
Raziel clenched that hand into a fist.
-
 “But this I would rectify. I would find Janos Audron and save him from the Hylden. I would correct the mistakes I made and pay for the debt I owed the ancient vampire. This much, if nothing else, Janos deserved of me.