Cain

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**Cain** is the leader of the Augurs.

## Personality

Cain is mysterious, as all the Augurs are. He is filled with sadness and self-loathing. He tells Laia that "there's nothing to me that is worth anything." He describes himself as "an error, a mistake. I am failure and malice, greed and hatred. I am guilt. We are, all of us Augurs, guilty." He knows he failed his people.

As the Scholar king, he was greedy for power and magic. He demanded the knowledge from Meherya. He manipulated Shaeva into betraying her people.

## Physical Description

Cain has the distinctive and disturbing look of the Augurs. The whites of his eyes are demon-red with jet black irises. "His skin stretches across the bones of his face like a tortured body." Other than his eyes, he has no color to him. He is frail and ashen with white hair.

## Biography

### *An Ember In The Ashes*

Cain appears beside Elias Veturius in the courtyard in Blackcliff Academy. He tells Elias that "all things change, Elias Veturius. You are no boy now, but a man, with a man's burden upon your shoulders and a man's choice ahead of you." He promises Elias "freedom of body and soul" if he participates in the Trials.

Cain and the other Augurs appear at Elias and Helene's graduation ceremony. He announces that the line of Emperor Taius XXI will fail and that it is time to hold the Trials in order to determine who will be the next emperor.

### *A Torch Against The Night*

When Helene comes to him, distraught at the situation she's in, he tells her that she is his "masterpiece" and she must first be "unmade."

### *A Reaper At The Gates*

Cain finds Helene at the Hall of Records. He has a message for her from Livia. Helene is furious with him, blaming him for letting her family be murdered.

Cain speaks with Helene before the battle of Antium. He tells her the Nightbringer's name is *Meherya*. He explains that his name is also his history, birthright, and curse. That the truth of all creatures, man or jinn, lies in their name. The Nightbringer's name was his making, and it will be his unmaking. Cain also tells Helene that already his every breath is torture. Long ago he took something that did not belong to him. And he, and his kin, have spent every moment since paying for it. Cain tells her that soon enough Helene will see him and his brethren brought low, for they shall undo themselves. The time to atone for their sins approaches, as it does for Marcus.

It is revealed that Cain is the actually the Scholar king who imprisoned the jinn long ago. The other Augurs are the Coven who created the Star. He and the Augurs siphoned the jinn's power for a millennium.

### *A Sky Beyond The Storm*

Cain is now withered and frail. His skin is as pale as bleached linen and his eyes are livid and bloody. He comes to Elias, who is the Soul Catcher, to give him his death prophecy in exchange for killing him so that the jinn can't. Instead of being killed with his kin, the Nightbringer imprisoned him, but he managed to escape. When Mauth does not immediately take away Elias' increasing anger at seeing him, Cain tells him that his "master is otherwise occupied battling a monster of his own creation." Cain reveals to Elias that Mauth has bound him with thousands of ropes to the Waiting Place. He says that Elias must escape the Waiting Place and asks him what he dreams. Cain knows Elias sees a war, an army breaking against a wave of flame, and beyond fair blossoms blanket the ground. Above it all is a hungering maw, a maelstrom that can never be sated. Elias is having these dreams because they are truth and because some small part of his old self lives within him still, screaming to be free. Cain tells Elias it is imperative that his old self live because the Great War is coming and Elias, not the Soul Catcher, will win it. He refers once again to Elias as "the ember in the ashes."

The jinn arrive and demand that Elias hand over Cain. He doesn't want to because Cain has knowledge about a threat to the Waiting Place. He fights off the jinn and escapes with Cain. Cain tells Elias that if the Nightbringer hears his death prophecy, it will be the end of all things. He tells Elias that what he meant when he told him he'd have "freedom of body and soul," he meant hope. He tells Elias that his fate is not written, no matter what Mauth or the Nightbringer say. Elias doesn't believe him and refuses to kill him. Cain tells him to pass on his death prophecy to Helene and Laia, and that if doesn't, "there will be no sky beyond the storm."

Cain grabs Elias' head and forces his memories on him. He reminds Elias that "the girl with gold eyes is Laia of Serra, heir of the Lioness. The woman with the crown braid is Helene Aquilla, Blood Shrike and Hope of the Empire. The woman with your eyes is your mother, Keris Veturia, daughter of Quin and Karinna, teacher and executioner." He burns their names into him and no power on earth shall root them out. This causes Elias great pain, and he uses Mauth's power to kill Cain. Elias realizes this was Cain's plan. As he dyes, Cain tells him it was the only way. He gives his death prophecy and then dies. His death prophecy foretells, *"It was never one. It was always three. The Blood Shrike is the first. Laia of Serra, the second. And the Soul Catcher is the last. The Mother watches over them all. If one fails, they all fail. If one dies, they all die. Go back to the beginning and there, find the truth. Strive even unto your own end, else all is lost."*

## Powers

Like all Augurs, Cain is able to read minds. He is also apparently immortal. He is a seer and can foretell the future. He can also heal at will.

## Trivia

* Cain frequently uses the title of the books in conversation. He tells both Elias and Laia that they are "an ember in the ashes." And he tells Helene that she is "a torch against the night." He tells Elias that his death prophecy will lead him, Helene, and Laia to a "sky beyond the storm."

## References

1. ↑ *An Ember In The Ashes*: page 401
2. ↑ *An Ember In The Ashes*: page 61
3. ↑ *An Ember In The Ashes*: page 52
4. ↑ *A Torch Against The Night*: page 267
5. ↑ *A Reaper At The Gates*: pages 322-323
6. ↑ *A Sky Beyond The Storm*: page 34
7. ↑ *A Sky Beyond The Storm*: page 36
8. ↑ *A Sky Beyond The Storm*: page 53
9. ↑ *A Sky Beyond The Storm*: page 55