[i]I always expected the death of a city to have more grey clouds, screaming wind and even lightening.[/i] Kane stood atop of on the citadels outer towers, eyes roving over the shattered stone and gaping chasms that had swallowed a thousand years of history. [i]Instead it's sunny and not a single cloud or errant lighting bolt to be seen. Well, a white cloud anyway...[/i]

Indeed the whole countryside was burning. Black plumes of smoke rose into the motionless sky as far as he could see in every direction. It seemed as though Edwards much vaunted allies had not been as loyal as he thought. The death of the King, and the knowledge that a civil war had broken out, was enough for any land hungry regent to launch his own campaign against the weakened kingdom. 

Only to the East, toward the ocean, was the sky clear of any signs of war. It would not last however. Kane could already see small black dots swarming across the landscape as they made for the Vampire port used to supply the capital. There would be precious little time for anyone to escape. 

[i]The Land Under Shadow is dying. I have done my work well though there is plenty more to do. Ah, and there are survivors![/i] Unbelievably, combatants from both sides staggered from the smoke and dust below, weapons forgotten, all making their way toward the edge of the city. Peasant, foot soldier, knight, even dwarf, all of them seeking only to preserve their own lives as the city burned. [i]Go east, you might stand a chance![/i] It was a minimal chance. But something was better than nothing.

Kane turned his back on the city and stared down into the ruins of the citadel. Even here the bloodlust began to fade as guardsmen and mercenaries alike realized that their leaders were either dead or gone. The violent clash of blades and war cries died away almost like a quick breeze, petering out to nothing until a strange silence fell across the broken grey stone and shattered timbers. Some collapsed into the ruins as the adrenaline wore away and their wounds caught up with them. Others leaned against each other in exhaustion. Some even just sat and wept into their hands. 

Hesitant at first, and then in ones and twos, men began to sheath their blades and back slowly away toward the broken gatehouse. A groan from inside the citadel and the resulting alarming shudder of another tower turned the small trickle of fleeing men into a rout. Friend and foe alike fled the confines of the citadel, their only goal survival. The mad scramble up the inside of the breach only paused briefly as they took in the streets that had once been so wide and clean. The moat itself had vanished, the water draining away into the empty maw that had once been the city centre. Only a muddy ditch filled with rotting wooden stakes and dozens of bodies remained.

[i]It looks like a quarry.[/i] The interior of the courtyard, once paved with gleaming black stone and edged with red sandstone, was nothing more than a mass of shattered chunks now. Bodies lay twisted everywhere and Kane could make out the broken forms of the Ogres in a couple of places. [i]Smart choice on Ulreks part, but they died as much as everything else did. He was wasted as a Vampire.[/i]

The number of dead and the extent of the suffering that had occurred beneath his gaze moved Kane not at all. [i]There is a price that must be paid by all men to be free. Now at least their souls can be saved. How many were wasted before I came. A thousand years to many.[/i] He would gladly have paid it again. But only if it meant the end of the Vampire line.

[i]Ulrek. Where are you?[/i] Kane stepped from the edge of the tower and began to glide toward the courtyard. A silver glint in the corner of his eye led him to the walltop where, wedged beside the body of a dead dust coated guardsmen, he found the Barons discarded mask. [i]Interesting. Managed to work on your weakness to silver I see. Fire it is.[/i]

He tossed the mask into the muddy ditch below and watched with detached interest as it landed with a wet smack before sinking into the ooze. Perhaps someone would find it in a hundred years or more and wonder what it had been for. [i]More than likely they'll melt it down if they have any sense. Some good silver in that.[/i] Only when it was gone completely did he continue down the walltop.

No living men remained in the fortress that he could see. Bodies were draped thickly all along the ramparts. Some slain by crossbows, others hacked to death, and more than a few had been boiled alive. A horrible way to die. Still, at least they were dead and not screaming for their mothers. Maybe they had been, but it appeared as though most of the wounded had choked to death on the dust that billowed across the city following the explosion.

Ahead of Kane, torn from its hinges, was a door that led into the interior of the keep. Only one type of being could do such damage and he felt a grin spread across his handsome features. [i]Ulrek. No need to hide. You cannot escape what is coming for you.[/i] He strode swiftly across the rampart, his wings vanishing as he ducked his head into the corridor. It was well lit by several gaping holes in one wall that allowed daylight to stream in. He could see footprints in the dust, keeping close to the shadows. He was not invulnerable to sun, yet.

Kane took another pace and then stopped in his tracks. [i]Father in Heaven, what is that?[/i] He felt a tremor run through him, and through the fabric of the world. It was the type of thing he had come to associate with great evil and in an instant he knew that something had changed within either Ulrek or Edward. [i]I have not felt this since... Since... The Saundering.[/i]

Before his time on earth, Kane had served his father in The Saundering, the great civil war that wrecked Heaven. Lucifer had lost his gamble for the throne and been cast from Heaven into Hell. A broken and tortured land that Lucifer had been doomed to rule for all eternity. [i]I wondered when his power might make itself known. Perhaps it is now.[/i] He felt his fingers tighten around the pommel of his sword and, for the first time, something akin to fear fluttered in his chest. [i]It is likely I go to my death, but what a death it shall be. A death worthy of song.[/i]