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Dark Chronicle - Chapter Fourteen - The Tenth Guardian

Having finally reached the summit of Janos Audron's balcony chamber, Raziel enters the room cautiously. He has traversed Nosgoth and crossed time to meet this being, but has no idea what to expect - whether Janos is the monster depicted by the Sarafan, or one of the noble figures memorialized among the ruins of the ancient vampires.
As he enters, Raziel discerns a striking, winged figure standing at the far end of the chamber, silhouetted by the wintry, morning light filtering in from the canyon beyond.
Raziel addresses the figure tentatively -

Raziel:
Janos Audron?

Janos turns slowly at the sound of Raziel's voice -

Janos:
It is heartening, after all these years, to hear my name spoken without contempt.

As he turns, his features are illuminated by the fire-lit glow of the chamber. This is not the demonic creature depicted in the Stronghold -
Janos is darkly beautiful, and radiates a sense of priestly detachment, and long-suffering patience.
Janos appears to recognize Raziel, but regards him with horror and pity.
Raziel's features are vaguely vampiric - his blue skin, cloven hands, and wings - but this emaciated, ragged spectre looks as though he has been nearly destroyed.

Janos:
Raziel?
My child, what have they done to you?

Raziel:
I have been dragged through hell and back - all, it seems, to reach this moment.
But I don't yet know why.

Janos speaks haltingly, as though not sure where to begin -

Janos:
For thousands of years, I have waited... alone here, losing faith...
At the time of the Binding, nine guardians were called to serve the Pillars. And I was summoned as the tenth guardian - the keeper of the Reaver, the weapon of our salvation.
Over time, our race died out. Until I alone remained... sustained only by my obligation to you, and by my guardianship of the blade.

Janos turns and walks contemplatively toward the balcony -

Raziel:
And the other nine? Why did their guardianship not sustain them?

Janos considers for a moment, then responds wistfully.

Janos:
I don't know.

Janos gazes beyond the balcony pensively as he recounts the vampires' history -

Janos:
As our race dwindled, the humans prospered. I have watched, over the centuries, as our history faded into myth, and finally receded altogether.
The humans have forgotten us entirely, and claimed the Pillars for themselves - wholly ignorant of their true purpose.
To them, I am merely a devil; the origin of their vampire 'plague'.

Raziel approaches inquisitively -

Raziel:
Why would the Pillars summon human guardians, then, if they are meant to be served by vampires?

Janos walks to the edge of the balcony as he replies, gesturing for Raziel to follow -

Janos:
The Pillars choose their guardians from birth, Raziel - and vampires are no longer born.
This is the crux of our dilemma.
And this is the terrible irony - with their vampire purge, the members of the Circle have assaulted the very architects of the Pillars they are sworn to protect.
They have embarked on a treacherous path. With every vampire they kill, the humans are slitting their own throats.

Janos and Raziel stand together at the edge of the balcony, looking out at the canyon below. Janos continues, speaking softly -

Janos:
They know I'm up here, beyond their reach, and it terrifies them.

Janos gestures toward the panorama of Sarafan slaughter, below. A number of impaled vampire corpses litter the canyon, planted here to defy and intimidate Janos.

Janos:
You can see how they flaunt their kills to torment me... or perhaps simply to lure me out.
They have this foolish notion that destroying me will somehow topple our entire bloodline.
Thankfully, we're not that fragile.

Raziel:
I have seen them mustering their forces in the village, below.

Janos:
Yes. I don't know what they're plotting... but I fear our time may be bitterly short.

Raziel:
Mankind seems to have brought you only torment and grief.
You must hate them.

Janos responds slowly, considering -

Janos:
They fear what they don't understand; and they despise what they fear.
But no - I do not hate them.

Raziel:
Vorador does.

Janos:
He has suffered much. He cannot forgive them.

Raziel:
Should they be forgiven?

Janos:
They don't understand what they're doing.
They are simply unenlightened... and vulnerable to manipulation.

Raziel considers this silently for a moment, then voices the question that's been tormenting him.

Raziel:
So it's all true, then - what Kain and Vorador have told me - I really am some kind of unholy vampire messiah...

Janos gently corrects him -

Janos:
Unholy? -no. Messiah... perhaps.

Raziel:
I don't like that word - it smells of martyrdom.

Janos:
Raziel, your role in this world's destiny is more crucial - and more benevolent - than you've allowed yourself to believe.
Your journey will not be easy - dark powers are allied against you.

Janos pauses, considering Raziel's ragged appearance -

Janos:
But I think you already know this... you appear to have been cruelly tested.

Janos turns back toward the interior of the chamber.

Janos:
The Binding must be secured, Raziel. The Pillars are the lock -

Following him, Raziel completes the thought -

Raziel:
- and the Reaver is the key.

Janos:
Yes.

Janos approaches a decorative chest set against the wall, and opens it - revealing the Reaver, ensconced like a holy relic.
Raziel becomes strangely apprehensive. Each time he has encountered the Reaver during his journey, he has experienced a sense of displacement, the distortion caused when two incarnations of the Reaver meet in time and space. And now, inexplicably, he feels nothing.
As disconcerting as the temporal distortion feels, this nothingness is somehow worse...
Troubled, Raziel wonders quietly to himself -

Raziel:
The Reaver is here? Why do I feel nothing?

Janos lifts the blade reverently and turns to Raziel, presenting it to him.

Janos:
The most formidable weapon ever forged by our swordsmiths...
They infused the blade with vampiric energy, empowering the Reaver to drain our enemies of their precious lifeblood.

Raziel V.O.:
As Janos presented the blade, an inexplicable sense of dread crept over me, more palpable than anything I'd felt before.
I was at once horribly repelled by the sword and yet irresistibly compelled to touch it, to take it up.

Raziel refuses the blade with trepidation -

Raziel:
Please - take it away from me.

At once, from the hallway comes the unmistakable sound of armored soldiers rapidly approaching. With sudden, sick recognition, Raziel realizes that by blazing a path for himself through the Retreat, he has unwittingly exposed Janos to the Sarafan.
Janos appears dismayed, but oddly resigned -

Janos:
I fear you have been followed...

With this, the door crashes open, and a squad of Sarafan warriors burst into the room. Their leader is armed with a cruel-looking weapon, and they have come bearing Moebius's staff - Raziel realizes at this moment that he has been duped and betrayed.
Raziel charges forward to defend Janos from the Sarafan, but Janos restrains him -

Janos:
You must save yourself, Raziel.

Janos lays his hands upon Raziel, intent on conveying him safely away from the chamber. Raziel resists -

Raziel:
Janos - no!

But his protests are in vain. The room recedes dizzyingly, as Raziel is propelled into an adjacent chamber within the Retreat - safely away from the Sarafan, and helpless to save Janos.

Raziel V.O.:
My surroundings whirled sickeningly, and I found myself transported safely away from the ambush, to an adjacent chamber.
Janos had delivered me from the Sarafan, selflessly forfeiting his own safety to preserve my life.
And now I feared that my newfound mentor would be slaughtered by the very crusaders I had so recently revered.
The irony pierced me, and with dawning horror I realized that I had been duped by Moebius from the beginning...
For the Sarafan had simply followed the path I gullibly blazed through this sanctuary, and had arrived bearing Moebius's staff. Thus armed, they had Janos at their mercy.
Through the door, I could hear them battling, less than a dozen paces away - but it may as well have been a thousand miles, for this barrier was sealed by elemental forces I did not possess.
It seemed Janos had conveyed me into the heart of the Fire shrine. I thought perhaps if I could galvanize the forge and imbue the Reaver in time, I might have a slim chance of saving Janos from his grisly fate.

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