Geiric crept through the eerily dark tunnels, drawing his sword as he stared down below at a large cavern, glowing with purple lights from sconces. He proceeded through, noting a corpse with dried blood on its right hand lying in the centre of the oddly shaped cavern. A bit of raised stone, the length of a person, attracted his attention, as attached to the front of it was a small bit of parchment signed 'For the Dragonborn'. He opened the parchment and then hissed in anger, sheathing his weapon as he did so. The letter read;
I know who you are Dragonborn. I have watched you when you thought you were safe, and I have seen how mighty you regard yourself to be. I see how the herd bows down before you, you the Hero from Legend, everything Skyrim wanted you to be, you were. Know that I despise you and all the Dragonborns I have known. The Dawnguard cannot stop us, not with the Tyranny of the Sun in its final days. You have failed this time, Geiric. Wait for the darkness to swallow you whole.
We are coming.
One day earlier
Serana gasped as her tomb opened. She fell to her knees as the thirst that had been dormant due to her mother's magic while she had been in the monolith returned sharply.
"Lady Serana, you have certainly been very hard to find." Serana looked up to find a smug, Nord vampire looking down at her. Instantly she recoiled, distaste making her ruby lips twist down into a grimace.
"Then again it is probably due to Valerica. She always was the brains in your little conspiratorial partnership" the Nord vampire continued.
"Croel, it has been a long time." Serana hissed through her teeth. She looked around at her surroundings seeing two other vampires, another Nord man and a Dunmer woman, and three human thralls staring disinterestedly at her.
"Unfortunately," she finished, "not long enough".
Croel's burning eyes glared at her, his hand travelling down to a dagger at his waist. "Lokil, tell one of your thralls to come here."
"But Croel," Lokil began, "why-"
There was a blur of movement as Croel grabbed Lokil, picking him up over his head and threw him on top of one of the stone sconces. A sickening snap echoed around the room as Lokil's back broke, followed by Lokil's screaming. A wave of Croel's hand and Lokil's screams were silenced. Bending down towards him, eyes glowing with fury, Croel murmured into his ear, "That is LordCroel to you. If you had any amount of wit you could have figured out Valerica's puzzle and I need not have come to this wretched cave to deal with your failure. Remember your place, when I give an order you follow it!"
Lokil nodded, and motioned for one of his thralls to stand next to Serana. "For you, my lady" Croel smiled at her, then ran his dagger along the thrall's throat.
The spurt of blood triggered Serana's desire and she latched onto the thrall, no blood spilling anywhere but in her mouth. After what seemed like an eternity in the tomb, this was exactly what she needed. She felt her power return to her and her senses sharpened. The thrall sagged onto the ground, dead. Serana studied the thrall more closely. "Why does her have a hole in his hand?" she questioned.
Croel grimaced, "Because your mother is one sadistic bitch. To open your cage, human blood was required." Croel's hand began to glow with a pulsating green light which faded to be replaced by a quill and parchment.
"What kind of magic was that?" Serana asked, raising an eyebrow. She had never seen a spell that produced quills and parchment before. Then again, she had never been big on the alteration school of magic. Too focused on destruction and necromancy.
"The kind that requires focus and intelligence. You would not be any good at it," Croel muttered absent-mindedly. Serana scowled at his back as he bent down to the monolith and began writing furiously on the parchment before placing it in the tomb where Serana had lain.
"Now, we need to get out of here and back to Castle Volkihar." Croel walked away from the tomb and into the cave.
"Wait," Serana called, "has my mother returned to the castle?"
Croel stopped, still facing away from her, and seemed to ponder something for a moment. "Yes, your mother is at the castle, your father was angry with her for stealing you away, but now they have reconciled their differences and are waiting for you. Are you coming?" he asked pointedly before proceeding into the shadows.
Lokil, his back now unbroken thanks to his accelerated vampiric healing, started to laugh at Croel's words. "Something funny?" Serana snapped at him angrily, "Because I seem to recall watching you scream like a little girl earlier." Lokil scowled and motioned for her to follow Croel's retreating figure. Serana walked, eager to get out of the crypt and to Castle Volkihar, where her mother would surely be waiting.