Torina looked down at her hands. They were shaking from exertion, small bruises and cuts covering what parts of them weren't protected by her armor. She ignored the idea she may have relied too heavily on stamina and health potions the last day to keep going, to keep up with her vampiric companion, but she considered it worth it.
Vyrthur was dead.
Her crossbow, gently propped up against the wall of the balcony so it wouldn't release it's deadly bolt at the wrong time, shone in the sun. Light that reflected off the dwarven metal hit the body of one of the last two snow elves in Skyrim. Torina couldn't help but feel guilty no matter how hard it was to stop his dreams of tyranny. No matter how much destruction Vyrthur wanted to cause in the name of spitting in the face of the god Akatosh.
The shaking in her hands held her attention. The light ashen color of her skin in the sunlight caught the dark color of blood, both hers and Vyrthur's, dried into the creases and under her naise. It gave her pause.
Serana stood next to where Torina crouched, her hands gripping the edge of the balcony as she stared down at the lake hundreds of feet below them. Great chasms in the ice were very visible up here, a reminder of their battle with two ancient dragons. The vampire's breath came in shallow bursts.
"Do you need me to-"
"No. You've done enough." Serana takes a deep breath."I'll be fine. It's just the sun...makes it hard to recover. And you? What do you need?"
Torina shook her head and put it back in between her legs to help her breathe. "The same. I think my blood remembers my time as a vampire in the Soul Cairn more than I'd like to admit."
Serana started to say something in response but was interrupted. The ground beneath their feet rumbled as the last wayshrine started to emerge from the lower section of the balcony. Both of them expected this move, the top of the wayshrine obvious to the two of them by now after crossing through the valley to open the others.
Knight-Paladin Gelebor strode from the entrance of the wayshrine like a man seeing the sun for the first time. Torina supposed he hadn't been on the surface in many centuries by this point. The dragonborn remembered the first moments leaving Dimhollow Crypt with Serana at her side. She could clearly recall the way the vampire looked in wonder at the world around her. She could see a similar expression on the snow elf's face as he turned to the two of them and walked up to their level. What had this valley looked like before he sequestered himself deep underground out of apparent necessity?
"Gelebor," Serana said in greeting.
The snow elf nodded to her before kneeling in front of Torina, offering his hand. Grateful, Torina wiped the blood from battle onto the heavy cloth of her armored pants. She didn't want to see it smeared on the pristinely clean armor the Knight-Paladin wore.
Worse for wear, she knew she'd have to spend hours cleaning her armor anyway. The heavy ebony armor she'd smithed with the help of Adrienne had saved her on more than one occasion but required diligent attention. Her armor's dark metal contrasted significantly against the moonstone-based armor Gelebor wore, and her mouth twisted in a private joke: their armor matched the different skin beneath, almost as different as two Mer could be.
"So," Gelebor said, his eyes focused on his brother's corpse, "the deed is done. The restoration of this wayshrine means that Vyrthur must be dead and the Betrayed no longer have control over him."
"The Betrayed weren't to blame," Torina said.
Gelebor, his hand still resting on the dark elf's arm, turned to look at her instead. "What? What are you talking about?"
"He was a vampire...he controlled them."
Serana's hands gripped the stone railing a little harder. Torina could see the faint dust of stone chipping away under her fingertips. After traveling and fighting alongside her the last month, Torina could easily pick up on the agitation broadcasting from Serana in waves. They'd never gone into much conversation regarding Serana's true feelings on her vampirism - the subject felt too personal to breach.
Gelebor's voice was measured, precise. "A vampire? I see. That would explain so much. Deep inside, it brings me joy that the Betrayed weren't to blame for what happened here."
Monitoring Serana's negative response to their conversation, Torina pressed further. "Why?"
"Because that means there's still hope that they might one day shed their hatred and learn to believe in Auri-El once again. It's been a long time since I felt that way and it's been long overdue. My thanks, to both of you."
Gelebor directed his last comment to Serana directly. He wasn't oblivious to her plight after all, which Torina feared.
As he was within distance to reach out towards her, he did so and offered her his free hand. With his palm up, he gave a show of comraderie older than even the dragons Torina and Serana slayed on the surface of the frozen lake. She glanced at his arm, up to his face, and back down again in the space of a second before reaching over to grasp his forearm.
"You're welcome," she said, letting go of his arm after a short time.
"You have risked so much - everything - to get Auri-El's Bow, and in turn you've restored the Chantry. I can't think of a more deserving champion to carry it than you."
Torina, leaning into Gelebor for support at this point, looked up at him and gave him a lopsided smile. "I'd almost forgotten about the bow, but thank you….I….stars, I think I need…"
Supported fully by Gelebor, Torina's body finally relented to her exhaustion.
"Torina?" Serana said, rushing over to lightly tap her face and brushing away the sweat-matted hair on her forehead. "Gelebor, is there somewhere safe she can rest? She refused rest even when I insisted. I haven't seen her sleep or eat properly in days now."
"Then it's a miracle the two of you survived this long," Gelebor said with a heavy tone. He adjusted her body so it was tucked into his arms fully instead of crushed into his side. "Come. Let's find a place untouched by the Betrayed or not completely sullied by my brother's dark influence."