The Messenger was known as Raief once. He was well respected and well loved. His students were the best and went on to do great things. That was before he lied, before he was cast out of the Inner Knowledge. All because of what he felt he had to do. All because of Faroe.

Faroe, the illegitamate son of Raief and Morina. Morina was a Goddess once. The Goddess of Darkness. She was a good vampire, one of a kind. That was before Darkness evaded her heart; a story that has been lost in the hearts of those who remember it.

Faroe knew not of his lineage. He was to be questioned by the Head Elders to see if he really was the Light Vampire.

They could not know of his parentage.

Both Raief and Faroe would be damned.

A boy like Faroe was not to be allowed.

A boy like Faroe was what started it all.

He walked down the Hall of Blood. A Hall where birth itself had been born; or so it was said. He trudged along, his head held down as the whispers of his Elders grew louder. They were not to be told of his relationship with Faroe. They could not.

Faroe stood in the middle of the room, seated in a vat of ink. The Stained Dias. The Inking was about to commence. The Light Vampires were to be marked by the sin of man. The "ink" was the dried blood collected from the tears of the damned. Their stench filled the room as Faroe stewed in it.

One of the Head Elders stood. His name is not important. Only his actions were remembered to those who have seen what unfolded.

"Brothers! We are here on behave of this young one. He is to be Inked and Questioned."

They Inked those who tried to pass the test first. Those who died were atomatically unworthy. Their tears added to the vat. Those who failed were eternally damned.

Raief resisted the urge to weep.

"I call forth Guardian Raief."

He stepped forward reluctantly.

"I Raief, hereby swear on the hearts of those we live to save that I speak no falsity and See only Truth." The people of the Hall nodded at the formality. "This boy we behold before us is an orphan; his parentage is not known to us. His blood is Pure and Light. I vouch for him."

He stood still in his place, waiting for challenges. The light in the room dimned slightly before returning to its saintly glow. Raief shuddered.

An old crone rose to her feet. "You Sir!"

Raief turned to meet the woman and had to surppress agasp. The Goddess of Darkness was before him.

"That boy swims in Darkness. Morina is the mother, Raief the father. HE LIES FROM THE TIP OF HIS SIN!"

Yells erupted from the crowd as the man in the middle stood, his face set with disbelief.

"Is this true my friend? Have you fathered this child?"

Raief nodded, as he spilled his first tear of many to come.

The disbelief turned to outrage. The Inking of such a child? Power is infused in such a brew. If an Evil were Inked, Good would not stand a chance.

"You were to let him be Inked?"

Raief offered no answer.

The old crone had already begun the process. The tears krept up the boy's body and headed for his eyes. They sucked up into his tear ducts as he bgan to scream in pain. Clawing at his eyes, pieces of his orbs flung to the floor from his fingernails. Falling down to his knees in the now empty vat, his back arched as he threw up the Waste. His movements were accompanied by haggard breathing. Getting up, the Elders gasped at his empty blood red sockets.

A new Light Vampire had been born, a Vampire with the sins of man inked to his body in tears.