The nightmare returned again and again. It was partially the reason why Rhaine eliminated her need to sleep... She did crave an occasional night of sweet oblivion. And now she again shot up with a scream.

The dream was untolerable. Again she watched Temple of Morrigu taking Tenebris, and again she was thrown into milky opalescent fog of Lerdann Halls of Creation. Again she slammed her fists on the quartz-like wall, in despair, unable to return to Clandestine. Again the tendrils of white mist curled around her, coiled around her head, and made the world fade before her eyes.

Forcing herself to relax and kick back, she caressed the black bracelet on her left wrist to calm down. She must not show this weakness to Saelbain and other baatezu... to anyone, in fact. With these thoughts, she reached for the book she was reading. It was so much better... than sleep.

He remembered the assignment given to him in the Halls, clouded by pale mist. The creators, pale forms of unearthly beauty. They were beyond classifications, beyond life, beyond death. Even beyond worship.

"The renegade is in the world named RhyDin. We will send you there. Make sure she is dissolved"

"Not even returned to her binding world?"

"No. She has been returned several times. You also must find out what aided the renegade to break free"

He bowed. Their magic was in his veins. Their magic was his beginnning and his end.

"How shall I know the renegade?"

Laughter. Almost palpable laughter of beings clearly aware of their superiority..

"You sense us. You will sense her. You will sense anything her magic touched"

Something in the back of Rhaine's mind told her she needed to return to the Asmodean Temple, if only to assure herself that things were still in order there. Gathering obscurative magics about her, she set off to investigate the temple she had put so much time and energy into, and hoped to see her brother as well.

Rounding a bend in the mountain path,she saw smoke rising from the direction ofthe temple. A look of worry crossed her face and she picked up her pace. One last turn in the bend, and the temple came into view, or at least the remains of the temple came into view. It looked as if it had been besieged by enormous warmachines, huge chunks of obsidian lay scattered about the courtyard, the towers had been toppled, huge holes were torn openin the walls. Something was burning inside.

A large group of red robed figures stood in a circle, surrounding a giant of a man in ornately decorated armor. This man was chanting in some sort of unrecognizable tongue, and held two blades above his head, blades which Rhaine could not help but recognize, for they belonged to Vitus, her bloodbrother. This is when she noticed that Vitus knelt before the man that was chanting, battered, his clothing torn, armor dented.

Before she could intervene, the armored man drove both blades down into Vitus' chest. A soul searing scream emmanated from within Vitus' body, and the blade that Rhaine had helped create shattered. Vitus' lifeless form slumped to the ground, a crimson mist rising from it. The mist coalesced into the form of a man, and immediately the armored man knelt, and said in reverent tones, "Your will has been done, Lord Arioch, you are now free."

Arioch grinned sadisically, his gaze turning upon Rhaine. "Now everything I ever wanted is mine, you left your temple, left your 'brother' to pursue whatever ends you did, and this is the result." Arioch cackled madly, his booming voice echoing within Rhaine's skull.

She finally reached the site of Vitus' death, but there was nothing she could do. He was bound to Death, her Life magic would not bring him back, and Arioch was near as powerful as a god, she could not hope to overcome him, especially not surrounded by his minions.

She drew her blade and began to slash at the red robed priests, determined to make Arioch's victory as costly as possible. There was more of the chanting that Rhaine didn't recognize, and then everything went black...

"Greetings, Priestess, have you returned to take command?"

She has never truly seen the vampire. Probably he was one of new recruits... Her distorted eyesight marked the spectral image. Impressive. She returned his ceremonial bow.
"Greetings, lord-among-kindred. I do not remember you here. Have you been called to serve the Lord recently?"

"I was placed in command in the absence of Templar Vitus, yourself, or Raevix. I assumed that in seeing you here, you had come to resume your duties in the Temple. My name is Adremalech, and I was brought in from another realm that Vitus conquered in your absence, a realm in which the Grim Lord's followers were considered no more than a cult."

Vampire's voice was pleasant. Well, Kindred seldom have unpleasant voices, this is a part of their survival skill. Rhaine continued in her best formal tone. It was not the time to show the human part of herself.

"A pleasure to meet you, Adremalech. I have indeed come to return to my duties here unless I am called off to deal with urgent matters in another realm where number of His followers grows. Has my brother left a long time ago?"

That was basically an obscure form of asking if Vitus was well.... the minimum minimorum of concern she allowed herself to show. However a look of concern crossed the vampire's features
"I am assuming he did not find you? He left yesterday in search of you, I had assumed he had taken over your duties wherever you were so that you could return here. He grew impatient and restless here, his victories were far too easy, and with the new weapons he obtained, many of our enemies surrendered with little resistance"

Damn. Now there was no certainity. I must resist the urge to rush off and find him, she told herself. "I see. It would be foolish to rush off immediately. I will wait for him."

The vampire grinned. At least he did not act like an overly polite master of court and intrigue. She was getting tired of extremely refined manners.

"I would appreciate the company, and the direction...however I don't think he will return any time soon, he was quite adamant on finding you...He feels you are doing something more exciting than what he is doing here, and wants 'in on the action"

"I know my brother, and that is quite expected. I do not wish to run around in circles via rifts and teleports in any case. Please tell him that I will be expecting his arrival in G'fenvass, the rift site and coordinates he can find in my room in the temple. Either he returns or finds me there."

Ceremonial goodbye - and she left into the rift again. Patience, patience, patience. Looking like a fool, chasing her brother just to see if he is well - that was certainly very unasmodean.