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Dark Chronicle - Prologue

Raziel enters the Chronoplast chamber, and surveys its tiered walkways and arcane dials, noting both the mysterious device suspended from the domed ceiling, and the undulating portal on the far side of the chamber. None of this interests him. He is looking for Kain.
Raziel hears a voice, and Kain reveals himself as he steps out from the shadows of the upper tier.

Kain:
At last...
I must say I'm disappointed in your progress. I imagined you would be here sooner.
Tell me - did it trouble you to murder your brothers?

Raziel slowly descends the stairway, keeping his eyes locked on Kain.

Raziel:
Did it trouble you when you ordered me into the Abyss?

Kain's only response is ironic laughter. He steps back toward one of the arcane dials and prepares to turn it.

Kain:
Eternity is relentless, Raziel.
When I first stole into this chamber, centuries ago, I did not fathom the true power of knowledge.

Kain throws the switch, and the Chronoplast device responds.

Kain:
To know the future, Raziel - to see its paths and streams tracing out into the infinite...
As a man, I could never have contained such forbidden truths.
But each of us is so much more than we once were. Do you not feel with all your soul how we have become like gods?
And as such, are we not indivisible? As long as a single one of us stands, we are legion...

Kain descends the main staircase, and moves toward the second-tier dials.

Kain:
Our futures are predestined -
Moebius foretold mine aeons ago. We each play out the parts fate has written for us.
Free will is an illusion.

Kain punctuates his statement by throwing the second switch. Raziel glares up at him from the floor of the chamber.

Raziel:
I found the Tomb of Sarafan, Kain.
How could you profane a priest by turning him into a vampire?

Furious, Raziel launches himself at Kain - who easily stops Raziel in mid-air with one hand, and holds him by the throat, at arm's length.

Kain:
How could I not?
One must keep his friends close, Raziel - and his enemies even closer.

Kain effortlessly hurls Raziel to the lower floor of the chamber, and then drops down himself, approaching Raziel's sprawled figure.

Kain:
Who better to serve me than those whose passion transcends all notion of good and evil?

Raziel rises slowly, enraged and humiliated, and wheels on Kain.

Raziel:
The Sarafan were saviors, defending Nosgoth from the corruption that we represent.
My eyes are opened, Kain - I find no nobility in the unlife you rudely forced on my unwilling corpse!

Raziel lunges at Kain. Kain evades the blow, but Raziel attacks again and pins Kain against the wall, his forearm to his throat.
Kain is unfazed by Raziel's attack - he is composed, even slightly amused. He allows Raziel to pin him there momentarily, and continues to taunt him, their faces inches apart.

Kain:
You may have uncovered your past, but you know nothing of it.
You think the Sarafan were noble, altruistic?

Kain breaks Raziel's grip and propels him away with a blast of telekinetic energy. Raziel flies backward and slams into a buttress with bone-shattering force.
Kain laughs and moves toward the final dial.

Kain:
Don't be simple.
Their agenda was the same as ours.

Kain throws the final switch. The arms of the Chronoplast device descend, and the portal flares into life.

Kain: (mockingly)
You nearly had me, Raziel...

Kain vanishes in a flash of light, and reappears on the upper tier, in front of the portal.

Kain:
But this is not where - or how - it ends. Fate promises more twists before this drama unfolds completely.

Kain turns and strides deliberately through the portal. Raziel gets to his feet and races up the stairway. He pauses briefly, then leaps through the portal to pursue Kain.
Raziel finds himself floating in darkness, and hears an unfamiliar voice calling to him out of the ether. As Raziel drifts to the floor and the chamber coalesces, Moebius the Time Streamer steps out of the mist to greet him.

Moebius:
Raziel...
Redeemer and destroyer.
Pawn and messiah.
Welcome, time-spanned soul.
Welcome... to your destiny.