Stolen Kisses
My name? Llainara Ashevir. My trade? I suppose you could call me a service provider, though I don't so much serve my masters as feed them. Background? Well, once I was a healer in the Tribunal Temple, caring for the wounded taken in by Vivec's children. But never again will I cure fevers and soothe infected wounds; my search for a cure for corprus will never be satisfied. For I am a slave, rotting in a vampire's foul nest, and I may never see daylight again.
Three months ago, I would never have dreamt of this fate. I was just beginning my journey back to Morrowind after a trading voyage to Cyrodiil's Imperial City, selling my home-brewed potions with a small company of three other Dunmer. At first, it had just been myself and my Ordinator bodyguard, Dadrul Ashuvi, making our way to the heart of the Empire. While still in Morrowind, we met a dubious pair of Dunmer heading the same way, but for what intention, I'll never know. Our journey passed uneventfully; we concluded our business in the city, then turned back to return home, joined by another party looking to visit Morrowind. We were a group of eleven, and accompanied by several skilled warriors and mages; surely we were at little risk of attack. But attacked we were, so close to Cyrodiil's eastern border, so close to home. We were just about to make camp for the night when a group of hooded mages ambushed us, attacking with powerful sleeping and paralyzing spells to leave us helpless.
The next thing I remember after the attack is awakening bruised, naked, and bereft of all my possessions, with no idea where I was. My companions were all in the same state. We appeared to be in some kind of underground cavern, filled with mushrooms and glowing crystals. It was a dank, forbidding place, constantly damp and cold. Occasionally, an ancient, bent Dunmer woman would come out of a mushroom hut and peer at us, cackling away to herself, then disappear back into what must be her home. One of the mysterious Dunmer we had met up with, Ashari Vannir (who, I admit, I had grown quite close to despite his suspicious behaviour), announced after some time that he recognised the dungeon. Apparently we were in a hermitage in Sadrith Mora, with no hope of rescue. Whoever had captured us must have Telvanni links to leave us here, so no Telvanni would help us escape. We were left in this dungeon without food and only the fetid pools of water to drink for what must have been days, growing steadily weaker as a group. One day (or night, I had no way of telling) the old woman hurried out of her hut and levitated up to a golden door in the wall. She spoke with someone on the other side, and then returned to her squalid home, a malicious grin showing her yellow teeth. She peered out at us again, and spoke for the first time.
"The Archmagistress is here to take care of you stupid s'wits. Oh, and how she'll take care of you!"
She burst into a shrill cackling before retreating behind her door. Jihen, the Bosmer archer, ventured a thin hope.
"Perhaps she's here to free us?"
We all fell silent as the golden door opened with a creak. The first we saw of Archmagistress Kaireni Telvu was a pair of black guarhide boots, clacking down the stone stairs towards us. It was followed by the hem and then the skirt of a long, blood-red dress, and as she descended, our visitor and possible saviour came into view. She was a petite, curvy Dunmer woman with pale blue skin and silky, curling white hair that tumbled over her shoulders like a moonlight waterfall. She wore an eyemask and black neck wrap that hid most of her face from us. It was surely a beautiful face, but as she came closer, I could not shake off an irrational dread.
"I do apologise for the conditions you've been kept in. I'm here to take you to a far better place." she said in a voice as elegant and exquisite as her appearance.
"Why are we here in the first place?!" This demand came from Juliena Atrius, the boldest of us. Perhaps it was her status as the daughter of an Imperial Guard captain. Perhaps it was just an Imperial's natural confidence and leadership. Either way, she was the only one brave enough to ask.
The Archmagistress laughed coldly.
"You are my esteemed guests, brought here for my pleasure. Do you really need to know any more? It doesn't change the situation."
This time, it was Jutta von Blutfliegel who spoke up, a valiant and striking Nord warrior woman who was Juliena's closest friend.
"Telvanni noble or not, you've kidnapped us, and if we're not released immediately, you'll feel Hircine's wrath, I swear by my axe!"
Nobody expected it, and certainly nobody could stop what happened next. The Telvanni Archmagistress ripped off her mask and scarf, grabbed Jutta by the throat, and bit into her jugular vein. Jutta screamed shrilly, but we were all paralyzed with terror, unable to move. The Archmagistress jerked her head away, wiped her mouth, and looked up, revealing the beautiful, pallid face of a predator we all feared. She was a vampire. Jutta was so weakened by the attack, she simply fell onto the ground silently, not objecting as the wizened old woman from the shack fastened slave bracers onto her wrists.
"By my ancestors, it's a vampire! Kill it!"
Dadrul screamed out this call to arms and threw a forceful punch at the vampire's face, which she dodged nimbly before grabbing him by the hair and leaping into the air as wings appeared on her back. As she slowly floated down, out of everyone's reach, she feasted on his blood until he was as helpless and pathetic as Jutta. She dropped him, letting him fall into a pool of water, and dived at Jihen, grabbing him and swooping upwards. It was Silusunei, an Altmer battlemage, who came up with a solution.
"Use spells! Stun her, poison her, anything! I know none of us have much magicka, but we have to kill her, even if we injure Jihen in the process!"
Bolts of fire, ice and thunder began to fly into the air, every single one missing the vampiric hunter. I did not have many offensive spells, but I tried in vain to paralyze her. Jihen was dropped, and now she came for his sister, Lumai. But Lumai was an adept unarmed fighter, and would not be taken. She punched the vampire in the jaw, following this with a swift kick to the abdomen. The winded vampire seized her hair and forced her head to the side, trying to reach her jugular vein, but the nimble Bosmer acrobat chopped at her throat. This struggle went on for perhaps a minute, although it seemed eternal, and eventually, the vampire opened her palms and drove a blinding bolt of lightning into Lumai's chest. She shrieked as her limbs spasmed uncontrollably, and then fell still, her dead eyes seeming to stare into mine.
"Now, you will all come quietly, lest you cause more unnecessary deaths."
We sat stunned and silent as she, the old woman, and a male Dunmer vampire she had summoned shackled us.
We were taken to the Archmagistress' tower of Tel Uvirith by herself and her silent male companion, chained together and slung on the back of a silt strider. We arrived in the midst of a roaring ash storm, so we never saw much of the tower. Dawn was close, so we were hustled into the tower and down a winding staircase that led to the dungeons. An undead Nord jailer unlocked a cell, and we were all forced in together, though it was tiny, our naked bodies all pressed together. We were locked in and left there, and after a time, Jihen began to weep uncontrollably, the wound in his neck trickling blood as he cried for his brave, dead sister. Lumai's death hung over us like a black cloud, and nobody even discussed an escape plan, let alone tried the door. I tried to ease his physical pain with my spells, but my slave bracers were slowly draining my magicka, so there was little I could do. The only ones who did not weep or brood were our strange Dunmer companions, the handsome Ashari Vannir and the arrogant, sarcastic Ivaiiu Hlemar. Neither of them seemed particularly disturbed, and eventually, near mad with despair, I turned on them.
"What's wrong with you?! Why are you so calm?! We're in a vampire's lair, we're going to die! Don't you see?! Our gods have abandoned us! These bloodsuckers will drink us dry!"
A slow, devastating smile came to Ashari's face.
"Not us, Llainara. Not us!"
"Why not?! You're as helpless as the rest of us!"
Silusunei screamed this at them, enraged by their arrogance.
"But, my friend, we are not. No vampire would harm a necromancer."
I stared agape. This beautiful, well-spoken Dunmer, the quiet, intelligent man I had shared my journey and my bed with, was a necromancer. A heretic, an enemy of all I believed in.
"Die, you abomination!"
Dadrul had sat in a corner and healed himself, and this was how he found the strength to punch Ashari in his bare chest, knocking him to the ground. Ivaiiu made to lunge at him with a life-draining spell, but before she could act, the door was opened. The tall, blond Nord vampire regarded us with…pity?
"For the love of Hircine, you've got enough trouble to deal with without fighting amongst yourselves. Now's not the time to cling to past prejudice. You should spend the little time you have left peacefully."
Jutta spat at him, still defiant even after she had been attacked.
"Who are you, to talk like you regret this?! You're a vampire, a beast! I'm sure you'll kill as many of us as that vile bitch, just to feed your sick needs!"
The vampire seized her, took her by the hair, and bent his face to her neck. Jutta tried to hit him, but he held her wrist, and now, with his face against her neck, so close to temptation, he spoke again.
"I am not a beast. See, how I am so close to your vein, to drinking away your vitality, yet I do not. Because I am not a beast. I can restrain myself. Mistress Telvu is now forcing me to restrain myself, because I am not vicious enough for her liking. Even if I wanted to rip your throat out, I am forbidden the sating of my eternal hunger."
He gently lowered her back onto the floor, and facing the rest of us, passed a hand over his face. Under the illusion he had just removed, he looked tired and haggard, with hollow cheeks and sunken eyes. Ashari regarded him with disgust.
"You fool. Tell Mistress Telvu my friend and I wish to speak with her."
But as if she had heard him, Archmagistress Telvu was suddenly there, beside the Nord.
"I know your intention, necromancer. You wish to offer yourself to me." She looked his naked body up and down approvingly, causing his obvious arousal.
"And you have plenty to offer, too. Heimdall!" she barked, causing the Nord to snap to attention. "Take this one out, and his friend, and…"
Her gaze fell on Alise Loubaine, a beautiful blonde Breton mage.
"This one, too."
Ashari and Ivaiiu walked willingly out of the cell, but Alise kicked and screamed, begging for mercy as Heimdall encircled her with his strong arms and lifted her bodily off the ground, slinging her over his shoulder before turning and locking the cell door.
That night, though Mistress Telvu's quarters were at the top of the tower, we in the dungeon could hear Alise's desperate screams of agony and the growling and barking of a wolf almost all night. But at one point, my ears filled with silence, and suddenly, I could hear Ashari's lusty moaning. I knew my captor was letting me hear him to torment me, and it was working. His betrayal had broken me utterly.
We have lived like this for months, sleeping by day and feeding our evil captors by night. We never saw Ivaiiu, Alise or Ashari again, and those among us slowly began to disappear, becoming pets for Kaireni Telvu's favoured children. Jutta became Heimdall's pet, and then his lover, living a life of relative freedom even until now. She feeds him, and in return, he keeps her safe from the tower's rapists and murderers, including Telvu herself, who often prowls the dungeons in the form of a huge male wolf before dragging off a nubile young female prisoner. In some twisted idea of Telvu's sick mind, Jihen was infected by her, and in a ravenous frenzy, attacked Dadrul, nearly drinking him bloodless. He now keeps Juliena as his pet. Myself? I was chosen by Telvu's silent one, Galos Farethi, the general of her undead warriors. He keeps me in his manor, dressed like a whore and chained to his bed, to be raped and drank from whenever he desires. I can only pray that he remains in control of his urges, for should he drink too much and kill me, I know I will not stay dead. I would rather be a slave and a victim than an abomination.