Time Streaming

Raziel activates the temporal device he found upon arriving in this era…

Raziel: Ah, yes - I like that look on your face, Moebius. You really don’t know what to do now, do you, old man? Here you are - caught without your damned staff - and I suspect things aren’t progressing quite as you’d hoped. You’re not used to the fly turning to confront you in your web, are you?

Moebius: Kain’s devious influence has poisoned your mind, Raziel. Now you see betrayal everywhere, even in your closest allies.

Raziel: We were never allies, Moebius. Conspirators, perhaps. Briefly.

Moebius: Why did you not kill Kain when you had the chance? He was at your mercy!

Raziel: Precisely. I had a choice, and I chose mercy. And now I know your sordid little secret - the significance of that displacement I felt when the two Reavers came together. Strangely enough, I was enlightened by the ‘devious’ Kain, not by you. In fact, I’ve learned much more than you counted on - I understand now how you’ve tried to manipulate all of history for your own personal gain.

But now all your little schemes are whirling in ruin around you, aren’t they? All because I decided to exert my will for once, rather than obey the demands of sorcerers and spirits and demons all singing the same tiresome refrain: ‘kill Kain!’

I am setting my own path from here, Moebius. I intend to discover the truth behind all of this.

Moebius: But you condemn us all with this impetuous act!

Raziel: Hardly impetuous; it took all the will I could muster. Has my refusal to kill Kain reshuffled your carefully stacked deck of cards?

Moebius: You really think that you’re exercising your free will, Raziel? You’re simply Kain’s servant -

Raziel: I do not serve Kain. I merely did not kill him.

Moebius: Raziel, do not forget your purpose here - you are destined to be the savior of Nosgoth!

Raziel: Oh, I’m sick of hearing that particular phrase. As for saving Nosgoth, so far I see precious little reason to bother. And I’ll choose my own ‘purpose’ from here on out, Time-Streamer. Right now, I choose to manipulate you, for a change. Go - in there.

Moebius: What are you doing?

Raziel: Come now, Moebius - you’re a cunning serpent… you’ll piece it together, I imagine. This era is of no further use to me. You will operate this device to provide me passage. I want to see the world in a simpler time - before the Sarafan began their crusade.

Moebius: And what about Kain? You’re leaving your quarry behind!

Raziel: You kill him, if it’s so damned important.

Moebius: You need only touch the two poles of the switch, and the device will transport you. But I urge you to reconsider -

Raziel: You’ve lost your powers of persuasion, old man. Rot here, and forget me.

Raziel operates the device according to Moebius’s instructions and travels through the flow of time. Upon exiting, he observes the state of the Sarafan Stronghold…

Raziel (vo): Even as I emerged from that infernal Time Streaming chamber, I suspected treachery. The Stronghold was vacant, derelict and abandoned…

Searching for an exit, he finds an effigy of Moebius holding Vorador’s head…

Raziel (vo): If I had any doubts about the era I now occupied, this grotesque tableau certainly eliminated them. For here was Moebius, long since murdered by Kain, lionised and beatified as the martyred leader of his bloodthirsty crusade.

And if I required further evidence, I needed only to behold the gruesome trophy Moebius held aloft - the severed head of Vorador. The final triumphant kill of Moebius’ cutthroat mob. His execution marked the annihilation of the vampires.

Far from channelling me into Nosgoth’s past, Moebius had propelled me over a century into its ghastly future. The intent behind this little detour was unmistakable. Having failed to make me his obedient assassin, Moebius intended to keep me ignorant of my true destiny, which clearly lay in Nosgoth’s past.

While his deception only reinforced my purpose, Moebius had effectively stranded me here. This left me no course but to explore the era I now occupied, and see what changes this century had wrought following Kain’s ill-fated decision. Perhaps time had cleared a path for me into the mountains where I might unearth more clues behind the mystery of Janos Audron.