The Darkness was a surprise, but it didn't slow my vampire eyes.  Looking around for Kain I felt it - a weakness.  The link had been severed, of course; the Elder could no longer reach me, and once more my immortality was threatened.  That didn't matter now. Kain, only Kain mattered.  To wipe him from the face of the earth and absorb his soul, as he had once drawn my blood, resurrecting me with his own dark gift.

       Although my preternaturally keen eyes pierced the dark, Kain was nowhere to be seen, even with my substantial vision.  NO!  I had been so close, to be once more denied – no! 

       Then a voice spoke, so ancient that it sounded as old as time itself, a Voice I remembered as the sound of eternity, and then the time streamer stood before me. 

       I remember falling once more from the sky in flames, falling through Nosgoth's bilious dark smog that for centuries had shut out the sunlight that was so damaging to my kind. The cool touch of the thick and sulphurous layer enfolded me, shielding my wretched form from the malevolent sun.  As I fell my senses were returning, events remembered as if in a dream, but before the memories could truly surface an overriding need for self-preservation buried them to my subconscious.  Why I was falling and what had happened beyond the doorway became immaterial in comparison to what would happen if I were I unable to slow my fiery descent from the heavens. 

       My broken wings flailed behind my plummeting form uselessly - a testament to Kain's malice and jealousy. As I rolled in the air they were pulled around me. Catching their leathery membrane between my claws, I felt them strain as another roll righted me. The wings caught the air as my burning arms grimly hung on, and my descent was slowed as I exited the dark cloud to the relative gloom of Nosgoth.   Plummeting and burning still, I tried to pick a safe place to land, pulling hard until my tattered wings nearly tore themselves apart.  Miraculously, I managed to direct my fall. 

       With a bone-jarring crash I hit the water, extinguishing finally the flames which had tortured me.  The force of the impact must have caused me to black out.   As I came to, I found that my claws held a death grip on my wings.  I freed my hands to swim to the side of the body of polluted water I‘d had the fortune to reach.  Although I no longer need to breathe – indeed, the very act of breathing is something of which I have no recollection, as a vampire has no more need for breath that it has for sunlight - I knew that in my depleted state I would rather be on land than sink forever in the murky depths, trapped by the pressure for eternity. 

       Half-crawling and half-pulling, I managed to get myself out of the water where again I blacked out.  The burning pain of the sun compounded with the impact had severely weakened me, and as I slipped into unconsciousness, I fought to keep from reverting to the spectral plane.  I had no wish to leave both my shattered body and unfocused mind to the mercy of the wraiths. 
 

       I awoke what must have been a considerable time later to here the crunch of feet moving over the sand towards my body as I lay there unmoving I lay there. Lying immobile, I discerned that the feet were those of a human, for no vampire was ever so noisy, nor so ignorant as to leave a body lying without ensuring that it was truly dead.  Before approaching, a voice called out quietly, so as not to wake me, but it was loud enough for my unnatural senses to detect. 

       "It's a vampire all right; come away, quickly.” 

       Another voice cut in now, more self-assured than the other.  "You saw it falling in flames.  It fell into the water, and even if it survived the fall it wouldn't have survived the water." 

       Of course they were right, but then again, I'm no longer a vampire; I'm something more, and their souls would go a long way towards restoring me. 

       They were still arguing as I moved my hand and focused my will to collect my remaining energy.  I unleashed a pitifully weak telekinetic blow, which threw them both to the wet sand.  Hurriedly picking myself up, scrabbling at the sand, I hurled myself at them.  The weak bolt I had collected wouldn't slow them for long.  I was upon them in a second, burnt skin screaming as my movement contorted slowly healing wounds, but luckily the bolt had been enough.  Pushing my cowl aside I drank their souls and took them into myself, feeling their weak wills suffused and engulfed by my own.  Their wills hardly quenched the never ending thirst, but it went a long way towards healing me.  Indeed, even as I stood from their lifeless bodies, coils of energy encircled my left arm as the reaver burst forth.  The Soul Reaver - the physical manifestation of my energy, and the weapon with which I would slay Kain. By destroying his ancient sword over me, Kain had released the energy of the weapon, and the soul blade had become entwined with my own corrupted soul.

        Then it struck me.  I looked to the glowing reaver, and visions flooded my mind as I stood on the beach.  Memories surfaced once more as I remembered the words of the mad time streamer, Moebius and what he had said.  Displaced from any time, killed by Kain, he had sought shelter in the streams of time.  Sanity had long ago released its once slim hold on his mind, as it would the mind of any who looked at the infinite variation of time and space.  Such things are corrupting for all but the gods.
 

        Moebius had explained how he had seen his own life and death in a million variations. Times without end Kain had destroyed him, but still he existed, a mystery he couldn't explain.  I didn't question him, for the words of the mad are infectious.  His evident insanity was not something I wanted any part of, but it was something I would unwillingly gain if I remained long with him. 

       I had turned away from him, noticing his distaste for the spirit blade, and the way he avoided looking at the weapon growing from my arm. 

       "Where is Kain?" I asked, but he continued with his speech as if my words were never spoken. 

       "Greatest of the chosen, Raziel. Fallen from grace you still seek him, following his whim.  You are still his puppet and you don't know it.  You seek to destroy him, but you don't realize you still perform his work.  Evil begets evil, Raziel - never forget that. The accursed soul reaver should have freed you from that; it came alive for you, but you still don't use a tenth of its power.  It has proved insufficient to the task at hand and it must be imbued with holy power.  This power will put you beyond even Kain's reach, even as Kain once put you beyond humanity.  But, until linked with the power of the light, the soul reaver is a weapon of no threat to Kain." 

       It dawned on me that the soul reaver was the weapon with which Kain had struck Moebius down.  It wasn't that he didn't like the reaver; he genuinely feared it.

       "Where is Kain?" I repeated, louder this time. 

       "Once-mighty Sarafan, you seek to undo your millennia old curse.  If you seek redemption, you must journey to the long-fallen city of Valenheim, once a haven for the Sarafan before Kain's rise to power.  There you will gain the redemption that you seek.  You must bring Balance, light to the dark, life to death, as you have already brought death to life, or all is for naught.  Don't let your hatred of Kain lead your actions, or you are more his puppet than you were in your former unlife." 

       Even as he spoke the pitch black was replaced by brilliant light, carrying an all-encompassing illusion of seven white pillars, a clear sky and flying birds - not the black ravens of Nosgoth but the white doves of another age.  A vision of another time, then, prior to Kain's blasphemy.  In the centre of this open shrine between the pillars there grew a beam of light, reaching to the very heavens.  Even as I looked upon this beam it expanded, moving outwards, engulfing everything.  I backed away, but Moebius seemed unfazed.  As the light hit me, I felt a searing pain, and immediately light was replaced with a darker vision.  Now the illusion was a sight familiar to me.  The pillars were broken, the light that had formerly reached to the heavens was gone, and Kain's throne now stood in the centre of the shrine.

       Once more Moebius turned to me.  "Return to your guardian, the Elder, for he knows of your master's darkest blasphemies.  If he will tell you, he knows heresies of which even you know nothing.  You must find the balance between life and death, and so end Kain's reign.” 

        I called out, confused but not beaten. "What do you know of the elder, he who saved me from pain unending?" 

       Even as I was speaking the vision was changing and shifting.  Once more the pillars seemed to reform even as the throne was once more replaced by brilliant light.  As it expanded again the searing pain hit me, and Moebius cried out, his ancient voice cutting through the pain. "Do not think you new and old master are so different, Raziel.  Kain and the Elder are but two sides of the same scarred coin.  Go, fallen angel; go, heretic, seek your redemption in the place where once your human brethren hid from you and your brothers." 

       In anger I pointed the Soul Reaver at Moebius, shouting aloud, "Where is Kain? What do you know of the Elder?" 

       My eyes lost sight of him as the light blinded me.  His face faded as I closed my eyes to shut out the brilliant light.  Then I felt the pain of burning, and once again I was falling. 

       This total recollection was witnessed almost as if it had happened once more, flashing through the pathways of my mind.   Still it made no more sense than it had in the strands of time, for surely I was free of Kain.  As for the elder, some of what Moebius had said rang true.  The Elder knew much, yet he only shared knowledge when it suited him. That was to end now.
 

       Trying to orient myself proved difficult, though.  There were few familiar landmarks.  So much had changed since I had been cast into the abyss!  Slowly I set off in the approximate direction of the nearest portal known to me and while I crossed the blackened landscape, I began to think more deeply on Moebius' words.  The craven coward still cowered beyond time despite everything Kain had done to him, forever festering in his hatred but paralyzed by his overriding fear. 

       I would not fall prey to his fate. Kain had killed me twice, and each time I had been reborn stronger, faster, and always a step closer to putting an end to him and destroying him for all time. 

       Bones were crushed under my feet as easily as twigs.  This landscape had seen battles I had taken part in but couldn't remember.  After journeying for close to two hours I closed in on the approximate area of the portal, but as I came closer I could smell the decay of vampire unlife.  Scouting the area I found two of the Melchahim.  Spawn of my brother, Melchiah, they were the weakest of our kind, having devolved from their once graceful forms to the shambling monstrosities before me.  Dispatching them would be a favour to them both. 

       Rushing in, I almost reached them before they knew I was there, but as they turned it was almost too late.  I slashed one of them across the arm with the reaver before he could even raise his arms to defend himself.  The other pushed his brother forward, guarding his own putrescent skin for a few seconds.  As he tried to escape, his injured brother fought with desperation, though with only one good arm he wasn't a threat.  His rotting skin was no match for the Soul Reaver's ethereal edge, and as he tried to attack me, I slashed at his face with the soul reaver.  Desperation forced him to defend himself even as he covered his face with his damaged arm.  He lunged at me trying to reach me with his good arm, and I countered, puncturing his chest.  Staggering back he clutched at the smouldering wound.  His mistake.  My next stroke impaled him, and as his cursed soul left him, the dark bled from his eyes.  Pulling my cowl down with my free hand I took his soul, so different from those of the two humans who had foolishly come to see what had fallen from the sky.  It was tainted with old corruption and the essence of a predator, who had preyed upon the weak. 

       Even as the soul was once more engulfed, I unsheathed the reaver from the lifeless corpse. 

       Chasing the other Melchahim was good; a release, a way to sate my rage at Kain on this fleeing being.  Gathering energy, I used a telekinetic blast to blow him off his feet, and before he hit the ground I buried the reaver in his back.  His writhing on the floor was worthless; as his body gave up, his spasms slowed before stopping, and his soul was ejected, discharged from the flesh.  In contempt I nearly left the soul, though I knew doing so would allow it to remain as a wraith.  Nevertheless, I devoured it, preventing such a sorry being from ever harming anything again, living or dead. 

       Leaving the two slain bodies I aimed towards the portal.  Scaling a small cliff proved not to be a  problem, as the soul of Zephon had imbued me with a spiderlike agility. After climbing the cliff, I walked down an overhung gulley, which soon became a tunnel into the face of the cliff proper. Turning a corner, I stood before the door, which was illuminated by two flaming torches mounted upon the wall.  Holding the soul reaver in the flames for a second imbued it with fire, and I thought back to Moebius' words that I didn't use even a tenth of the Soul Reaver's power.  Maybe I had to imbue the sword with further power.  I entered the portal room still thinking this, and back to the visions I had seen in the strands of time.  When I had faced Ariel, I carried another form of the reaver.  Recognition came - this must be the holy energy of which Moebius had spoken.

       I would have my answers soon enough.  Standing before the portal, I concentrated on the mask from the wall of the Elder's cavern.  I focused, and the gate burst into life.  Still concentrating on the mask, I stepped through.  The usual cold feeling of the gate passed over, about and through me, and I entered into the Elder's cavern. 

       The cavern was as it had been; the maelstrom opening above it, and spiralling down into it.  Stepping onto the platform I released the hold upon my body, and shedding physical matter I entered the spirit realm.  The world warped and the reaver too changed, a reminder that power in this realm was not determined by physical strength. 

       "Welcome, Raziel, back to the realms you forsook in your haste to catch Kain,” thundered the Elder. "You have no doubt found the bond between us has been severed.  Nevertheless, should you by destroyed in the spirit realm or the physical, you will be reformed here, but you may no longer hear my voice or my guidance outside the spirit realm." 

       This was the least of my problems, "Where is Kain?" I demanded. 

       "In the strands of Time.  Kain is beyond your reach.  To find him, you will need to travel the strands also, but stepping from Nosgoth will render my bond to you useless. You can only be reformed in this Nosgoth at this time.  Heed this warning, Raziel.  Even I can not step outside time."

       These words were of little comfort to me given Moebius' warnings.  "Moebius, the time streamer, cast me from the strands to burn in the sky," I answered.  "What do you know of Kain that you have yet to tell me, Great Elder?" I asked, throwing as much scorn as possible into my words.  "I burned in the sunlight, though I thought I was proof against even sunlight now!”  Again, I tried to make my tone contemptuous to goad a reaction from the Elder.  

       "The sun will still weaken you, Raziel, but it is not harmful as once it was.  You did not burn as rapidly Rahab did, but the burning you suffered was caused by the being known to you as Moebius, and not Nosgoth's blinded sun. He feared you and the weapon at your wrist.  His power in that place is great, even though he it drove him insane long ago.  Only his overwhelming fear of Kain prevents him from challenging Kain's use of the strands.”

       "Maybe so,” I replied, taking in what I had heard.  "Moebius warned me about you. He said you use me, even as Kain once used me. How do I catch Kain now?  How do I travel the strands with mad Moebius guarding them?" I responded, hoping he heard the accusation in my statement.  I was beginning to wonder how he would react, when he answered. 

             "You must gather the power of the Soul Reaver, tempering its edge in the other glyph forges.  Search them out.  As you found the fire forge so you must find the others. A fully tempered Soul Reaver will scare Moebius as much as Kain himself.  Seek out Moebius.  If he will face you, best him, and he will give you his knowledge of the strands of time, which you need to stave off the madness of temporal travel."

            "What do you know of Kain?” I interjected.  "I freed myself of him, only to be chained to your will, performing your deeds.  To what end?"

       "Raziel, I gave you that you desired most, a chance to strike back at your creator and your would-be destroyer Kain.  In return I ask you to bring an end to Kain that once more the dead may die, rather than being resurrected as vampires.  Then, once more, their souls will flow back to me."

       The truth of his words struck home.   Changing the subject I replied,  "Moebius told me of Valenheim, that I should seek the Sarafan city." 

       "Valenheim is long since buried, sealed shut by Kain.  The last of the  Sarafan sought protection in their almighty citadel, prepared for the dangers from outside, but unprepared for those within.  Kain's touch reached more than just you and your brothers." 

       "You were the lucky ones, his lieutenants, the pinnacle of his dark art.  Pledged in life to ridding the world of the vampire scourge, he set you on your fellow Sarafan, and within a generation you had turned the tide, wiping out all but a few remaining knots of resistance."

       "Find Valenheim.  It now lies buried, sunken into the dust beyond Melchiah's realm, The few creatures of the area know its history, and may be persuaded to help you enter the tomb city."

 "Go, and using the skills of your brothers, gain entry to the citadel where once a young woman heard the voice of Kain."

       Even as the Voice of the Elder stopped I knew the audience had ended.  I did not stay in the cave; the cool air was unnatural and disturbing.  Exiting the cave, I again used the portal, fixing Melchiah's Glyph in my mind instead of the Mask that was before and behind me in this place.  Still concentrating, I stepped through into Melchiah's realm.