Gabriel nearly exploded, as Mithias reached forward, as sudden silence fell to undermine Mithias' dripping words. The city came to a grinding halt, cars skidding to a stop, as hundreds stood on the brink. A thousand pair of eyes, staring directly at Mithias as he spoke, insults echoing from the silent faces of the buildings. And yet, he never finished, as Gabriel spoke. Not in a huff, not with raised voice and anger, but quietly, nearly whispering. In such a manner that Mithias stopped speaking simply to hear what was said. "Do you think I do not realize my own ineptitude? Do you think that I am your father, simply because I gave you new life? I am not your relative, by blood or otherwise, for I cannot know you." Gabriel looks up, and his eyes are broken. For the eyes of the vampire were proud eyes, arrogant eyes even, that looked down on the world and all inside of it. The eyes that looked at Mithias then were not the eyes of the Vampire Lord, that arrogant and capricious being, who had held the world in the palm of his hand.

They were the eyes of a very, very old man.

"I cannot know you, I cannot love you, and I cannot save you. I cannot be anything to you, because to me you can only be nothing. For when I look at you, I see not a vampire, I see not a youth, I see not a knight. All I can see in your eyes is the ashes I will bury, when you meet your end all so soon." They were silent words, spoken with no emphasis, and yet they rang with truth. There was no subtelty, there was no play on meaning. And yet, it was a truth few had ever realized. "Despite myself, I get involved. I did save your life, for you did not deserve the death that would fall upon you. I only delayed the inevitable. One blade averted, from the hundreds you will no doubt seek in your life. You may live for a thousand more years, and yet I may never know you. For when the blade strikes, when your time is finally at end.... I will not be the one to bury you."

With that, Gabriel turns away. Life seems to resume, as if the very city had been holding it's breath. A babble of chatter and movement, the starting of engines, the stomping of feet. The droning sound of daily life, only noticed when one had experienced it's absence. None would remember this event, nobody would know what Gabriel had said to Mithias. No doubt, every record had been destroyed, every memory of it erased. Gabriel left no traces he did not wish to. "What you do with your life is your task, and yours alone. I can give you only a single piece of advice. Do not live for death, or you will never truly live at all."

With that, the ancient vampire left.