Disclaimer: I don't own Morrowind. Bethesda Software does.
Rels Tenim, you've led me on a merry chase, but now it's over.
Pallas stood at the threshold of the cavern door. She had searched far and wide for this thief, and she was now convinced that this man was much more than the Fighter's Guild had let her believe. Fleeing from the law in Sadrith Mora, Rels had caught the next ship to Tel Mora. And then, as though to further put the guards off his scent, had walked across the bay to Vos. Unfortunately for Rels, but fortunately for Pallas, the thief's old habits died hard. The farmers Pallas had encountered in the town were more than willing to point her in the right direction, griping about stolen guar, grain, coin, and other goods.
He's become careless, Pallas mused. Does he know I'm chasing him?
Pallas shrugged her shoulders, feeling the weight of her armour pressing down on her. She stood on the surface of the ocean as though the water was as solid as the earth. She'd nearly depleted her entire reserves of magicka, walking around the water, following the vague directions from the Wise-Woman of the Ashamannu Camp, looking for that one hidden cavern. The cavern called Shallit.
Pallas was tired, but like any good knight, refused to show it. She had a job to do, and would not rest until it was done.
"You're mine, Rels," Pallas growled, pulling an amulet from under her tunic. She closed her eyes, mumbled the power word. There was a flash of white light, and in the water under her feet a dead creature rose up and started to breathe heavily. A bonewalker.
Not wasting a second, Pallas grabbed a second amulet, and another flash of light heralded the summoning of a skeleton warrior. It brandished its weapon - an axe this time - and looked to Pallas for instruction.
"Follow," She ordered her summoned minions, then opened the door of Shallit and stepped inside.
The air was thick and close. Pallas felt the strain on her nerves increase tenfold - while she had raided many thief hideouts, bandit lairs, even tombs when duty called, she never liked being underground. It reminded her of her mortality. And no warrior likes to be reminded of that.
She walked over the water, sensing her Water Walking enchantments fading. She hurried to the other side of the depression in the doorway, and shook the water from her Orcish Boots before drawing her sword and stepping into the cavern.
It was silent. Aside from the heavy, rasping breathing of the bonewalker, there was no other sound. Pallas frowned. Normally, there should be a guard, or a sentry, waiting at the entranceway to ambush any bounty hunters.
But there was no-one there.
Pallas stepped cautiously into the cavern. She sensed a great space above her head, and looked up. Stalactites hung from the ceiling in careless array. Pallas gave it no more thought. There wasn't time to appreciate the scenery now.
The lack of ambush was strange. Something wasn't right.
She turned to her left, the only way in the cavern she could go. To her right were a wall, rocks, and the stalactites. The knight had barely gone three paces in the dark when she found the dull light of a nearly-extinguished torch.
Once again, Pallas wished she had not used her Amulet of Shadows when walking here. What was a Cliff Racer attack compared to an ambush in the dark? But she had no choice. Straining her ears above the rasp of her summoned monster, Pallas re-lit the torch.
Holding it high in her left hand, Pallas looked around. Nothing. No-one. Except... She turned to her right, where two barrels leant against a wall. There was a sword there, wedged between two fat - and unlit - candles, along with a carefully written note.
---
Giden,
Here's a blade for the new man. Send him ahead and we'll set up his arrangements. Dinner is waiting but not for you. Muvrulea is sick again so you've drawn sentry duty. Don't worry, you'll be getting a portion of his share. Stay alert; bounty hunters are seeking us, but I feel fairly secure up here.
Rels.
---
Pallas allowed herself a smirk. Oh, Rels, you've really outdone yourself now. No doubt the sentry was asleep due to too much greef or stolen Cyrodilic brandy. This shouldn't be difficult at all.
Pallas slipped the note into her belt and picked up the sword. It was an imperial broadsword, much like the one Darius had given her when she joined the Imperial Legion. It seemed in fairly good condition. She slid her short-sword into the sheath at her waist and hefted the broadsword in her hand. The blade warmed to her, knowing it was in the hand of a master.
A pity I didn't bring my axe along as well, Pallas sighed, but I do need to train with my short-swords. I can hardly be considered a warrior if I don't know how to use more than one weapon.
Pallas set the torch back into its stand, then headed down the corridor, the broadsword at the ready. Behind her, the bonewalker and the skeleton had been unsummoned. The summoning charms only worked for brief amounts of time. That didn't bother her. She had the sword. With any luck, Giden, if he was even awake, would think her 'the new man'. And the arrangements would be made...
She stopped.
She pulled the note from out of her belt and read it again.
Dinner is waiting, but not for you.
The phrase rang in her mind, setting off alarm bells. Dinner. The hairs on the back of her neck rose as she remembered a book she had read back in Ald'ruhn. A Game At Dinner. Those three thieves... the heist gone wrong... the backwards names... Lady Tressed... Lady Dessert.
Vampires!
Pallas swallowed. Impossible. Rels would not be able to... to... He was a thief, nothing more! He was lying, cheating scoundrel, but he was not a sorcerer. There was no possible way for him to be able to summon, create, or even control a vampire... Rels Tenim was just a man!
Pallas wiped the sweat from her brow as she approached the doorway at the end of the corridor. If her suspicions were correct, then she would be well-prepared. If her fears were unfounded, then she was certainly going to take great pleasure in gutting Rels for putting her through this.
There was no sentry. Only a sentry post - a bedroll, some crates, a chest, and a pile of potions. But Pallas's mind was not on looting the cavern now. The thought of facing one of the living dead was dominating her every move.
As she approached the doorway, the Nordic knight caught a whiff of a familiar scent - the musty stale smell of decomposing bodies left in a stone vault. A tomb. She was about to enter a tomb.
The sign on the mantle said 'Drethen Family Tomb'. Pallas frowned. The entrance to the Drethen tomb was on the south side of the island. She'd found it, accidentally, while looking for Shallit. Were the thieves responsible for waking something... someone? ... while in this cavern?
There was only one way to find out. Pallas gripped her amulet, spoke the command word, then opened the door of the tomb and rushed in, short-sword drawn.
The skeletal guardian of the tomb turned, his claymore raised in response to Pallas's battlecry. Nord and skeleton battled briefly before the tomb's guardian fell under the wrath of the Nord's Fireblade. While fighting for her breath, Pallas turned to face her summoned skeleton.
"You could have helped me a little," she joked wearily. The skeleton stared back at her, its eye sockets hollow and empty. It raised its sword and shield, and waited for Pallas's next command.
Pallas sighed, then looked around the tomb. Aside from where she had just come through, there were two other doors. Pallas decided to take the one on the left. She raised her Fireblade, then threw caution to the wind. As all Nords do.
The bonelord barely had time to turn around before it fell in a shower of ashes and gravedust. But Muvrulea was not unprepared.
"How nice," she hissed as her long nails dug into Pallas's neck. "Another bounty hunter has come to dine."
Pallas whirled, drawing the broadsword and swinging it at the vampiress with all her strength. The sword sheered right through the vampire's skull...
But Muvrulea laughed. "Pitiful mortal." She hissed. "I am invincible!" She drew back and plunged her fangs deep into Pallas's neck.
The skeleton, sensing that its master was in danger, leapt to the attack. It hacked again and again at the vampiress, but like the broadsword, the skeleton's weapons did not harm the vapmpire in any way. All it seemed to do was make her annoyed.
"Go away, bloodless thing!" Muvrulea lifted her bloody lips from Pallas's neck to hiss at the skeleton.
The knight took her chance and drew both her short swords. Fire and ice burned into the vampire's lifeless body, tearing it apart.
"NO!" Muvrulea screamed, and pulled back. She clutched at a wound that dripped with ichor. Her soulless eyes burned into Pallas's vivid blue ones. "I AM INVINCIBLE!"
Pallas roared, her Nordic blood denying her to feel any more pain. She leapt at the vampire, short-swords flying. The skeleton hacked and slashed as it had been summoned to do. Fire and ice burned at the vampire, destroying her undead shell.
The vampire raised her hands, slashing at the air and casting foul spells at the same time. By a lucky swing, Pallas ducked under one of the vampire's spells and cut clean trough the undead creature's wrist. Muvrulea's hand fell to the floor, and flopped around like a fish.
"NO!" Muvrulea screamed. "I CANNOT DIE! I AM INVINCIBLE!"
The skeleton's sword flashed, and Muvrulea screamed again, this time in pain. Pallas took the chance and stabbed the vampiress in the heart. Muvrulea screamed one last time before falling to her knees, already turning to ashes.
Pallas leant back, the battlefury draining from her. She smiled at the skeleton. "Thanks." She grinned despite feeling the shakes come over her. "You did pretty good."
The skeleton stared uncomprehendingly back at her. Pallas hadn't summoned it to be a good conversationalist. She waved goodbye at it before it vanished back into the realm from which it had been summoned.
Ever the realist, Pallas made her rounds of the room, looking for valuables that the dead had thought worth trying to take with them. Her whole body shook, and her neck was throbbing. That bitch hurt me bad, the knight realised, and slumped against the wall. She fumbled in her pack, her fingers reaching for one of the bottles she carried. Carefully, so as not to spill anything, Pallas drank the healing potion down. Within seconds, Pallas felt the life returning to her. The wound on her neck was closing.
Pallas sighed, refreshed, but still exhausted. There was only so much that magic could do.
She threw herself down on the ground, next to the rotting corpse of the Muvrulea.
"You know," Pallas talked cheerily to the dead creature while she repaired her weapons, "You Dunmer vampires, with your pale skin and your creepy eyes... you could almost be Nords." Pallas snorted. "I mean, you, and your hair and everything... You could almost be Sotilude." Pallas laughed. "Oh, by the Nine, I hope not. I still haven't gotten the code book off her yet!" Pallas grinned.
The hand on the floor gave a final twitch before disintegrating into dust. And a ring gleamed faintly in the dark.
Curious, Pallas picked it up. "Oh this is a pretty thing." She murmured. She looked down at the corpse and smirked. "So that's your secret, huh?" Pallas slipped the ring on her finger. "A magic ring that stops normal weapons from hurtin' you." Pallas examined the way the ring shone on her own hand. "I guess that's what Rels was planning for me, right? To be killed by you while I fought in vain with the broadsword? That was nice of him. Well, I guess I gotta go and pay him a little friendly visit." She grinned in the dark. "Pallas the vampire slayer is coming for you, thief!!"
Pallas stood up to go, but then, on a whim, turned back, and looked down at Muvrulea's finally-dead corpse. With a vicious grin, Pallas removed the expensive robes and slippers the vampiress wore, then stomped on the body until all that was left was ashes.
"Nothing personal," the knight said as she left the tomb, "But you really pissed me off." She drew her Jinkblade as she re-entered Shallit. "Like a certain Dunmer thief who's hiding in this very cavern."
Rels Tenim, you've led me on a merry chase, but now it's over...
A/N: Pallas is the character I created. Vive la Nevarine! This story is based on my own escapades in the world of Morrowind - everything I felt while playing is what I wrote. I came, I saw, I killed a vampire... and I wrote a fanfic about it ten minutes later. If I've spelt the name of the tomb wrong, I apologise. But the Dunmer spell things funny.
And no, I'm not spoiling the game - I'm not telling you where Rels was hiding. Comments make me happy. Flamers make me go stabbity-stab with my magic Jinkblade. It's a Glass Jinkblade.