Hello Death, We Meet Again
The ferns outside my window dripped slowly in the soft sprinkling of rain that from time to time beaded up on the surface of their leaves. The moss below faithfully soaked up every drop and returned to its deep green richness. Nothing stirred in the early evening light, and I wondered if perhaps this was the perfect day. I loved the rain, especially when it came down in light amounts. I know most people like the sunshine, but honestly, I can't stand the stuff.
If I'm being entirely honest, I'm pretty sure the sun doesn't like me either. Every time the golden rays dance across my skin, it immediately begins to burn. I don't mean that I get sunburns. No, I actually begin to turn to coals. If I'm in the sun for more than five minutes straight, you can actually watch the smoke rising from my body, and I begin to look like a combination of a stone golem and a flame atronach. If you haven't guessed it, I'm a vampire.
Don't get me wrong, I like being a vampire, but sometimes it's nice to just be able to go out in the daytime without the fear of losing my skin. Anyway, today was a great day, and I wanted to take a walk. So, off it was to the woods to see what I could find to entertain me for the remaining hours of the day. As I walked, I noticed the flowers that grew by the deer trail that I was following through the forest. Nearer to my house, death had begun to surround me more and more, and the flowers had slowly died in a ten foot circle around my house. Now that I was further away though, deathbells lined the trail, their violet petals turned toward the ground in homage to the circle of life that they represented. Bumble bees buzzed around their fragile stems, seeking to gain nutrients from the deadly flowers.
Trees towered above me as I wandered north. Birds flitted from branch to branch, and I found myself getting closer and closer to Whiterun. Suddenly, the forest cut off and I gazed over the Whiterun valley, its vast expanses of fields stretching towards the mountains far away. The city itself was just beginning to light up in the early evening, and the walls almost seemed to sparkle from the light of the torches that the guards carried.
A lone pair of travelers were walking the path that led from Riverwood to the city, one in mismatched armor, and the other I recognized as Faendal. Curious, I trailed them for a bit. Faendal referred to the other as "Alden" a few times, but since I'd never heard of him, I quickly lost interest.
One problem with taking the off road option is that it often involves cliffs. Now, most people may simply give up and go around, but I'm not most people. I have a few vampiric tricks up my sleeve. The "cliff" that I am referring to is actually much more like a steep hill, but nonetheless, it wasn't something I could stroll down, so I summoned my inner power, and I turned into a swarm of bats, swirling and diving before reassembling at the base of the hill. Checking my surroundings to make sure nobody had seen me, I headed for the city.
Most vampires have issues getting into populated places, but I have genes on my side. You see, way back before I was born, there was this really powerful vampire dude who had taken over a cave near my mother's house. Apparently evil vampires still like to get laid, so he used his powers to seduce her. Once she was in his lair, he knocked her out and had his way with her. Shortly thereafter, a man by the name of Alek'sir raided the vampire's lair, and in the process, saved my now-pregnant mother. Nine months later, I came screaming into the world. Technically I'm only half vampire, though the vampire is pretty strong. Basically, that just means that I'm a goddamn gorgeous vampire. I lack the snarled nose and evil face of those who are turned, instead looking like any other human would. Otherwise, I'm a damn vampire.
Anyway, I wandered by the guards unnoticed, and I had almost made it to the little market section of town, when a yell resounded from those who watched the gate. "Vampire attack!"
Naturally, I looked around in confusion, as I hadn't done anything to provoke them, but it wasn't me. At the gate, half a dozen vampires in bloody armor tore into the city guard. I could see immediately that it was an unfair fight. The guards had no chance of winning. Both of the blacksmiths came running down the path to the gate, accompanied by another wave of guards. I locked step with the guards, and before long found myself battling the five vampires that remained.
I raised my sword and brought it down heavily, slicing a deep gouge in one of their forearms. He snarled and lunged at me, but before he could reach me, a finely crafted sword with a thin blade deftly removed his head with a flick of its owner's wrist. Holding its handle was Adrianne Avenicci's new blacksmithing apprentice, who's name I didn't know. She just grinned at me, and proceeded to dismember another vampire. Unfortunately, this left her open to an attack from a third vampire, and though I did my best to stop him, he reached into her back and ripped her heart from her body.
As she twisted and fell, time slowed to a crawl. Her heart slowly contracted to perform its last bloody beat, and her eyes fluttered, though so slowly that one could stare into her dying moments for eternity. I tried to move to catch her, but my body would only respond at the same speed as the world around me. The entire world was stopping because this young woman had died. Panicking, I forced my limbs to move under her as time slowed even more, and though I would have caught her, time stopped entirely before she reached my arms. My mind raced, but I still could do nothing.
I charged down the hill with the guards, and had almost reached the scene of the fight, when I realized that I'd lived this before. Once again, the apprentice saved me, though this time she dodged the incoming attack that followed, and skewered the vampire instead. As she pulled her blade from his gut, another snapped her neck. Once again, time slowly stopped, and then I found myself dashing down the path to join the battle once again.
Time after time, I leapt into battle, doing my best to protect the apprentice, but every time, I failed miserably, and time reset once again. Finally, when I thought I'd never again see life past that horrid fight at the gates, the apprentice chose a different tactic. Instead of charging in, she grabbed me by the wrist and kissed me. Flustered, I stayed with her awkwardly, which was just long enough for the rest of the guards to kill the vampires at the gate. Before I could say anything, she winked at me and ran off. I'd never even gotten her name.
I'd spent the next day tossing and turning, and finally I could stand it no longer. Even though the sun still shone over the landscape, I had to get answers if I was going to sleep, so I wrapped myself in bedsheets, which went over a set of full plate steel armor that I had laying around. All in all, I looked like a mummy, and I sounded like a Dwarven machine. Even with all of this, the sun still burned my eyes, and I wished that I could have slept through the day. Unfortunately, I needed answers, and that girl held all of them.
By the time I reached Whiterun, the sun had completed most of its journey across the sky, and people were headed home from work. Desperate, I ran to Warmaidens, the blacksmith where the girl worked, and burst through the door. Adrianne, uncharacteristically, was sitting behind the counter in the store. When I didn't see anyone else, I blurted, "Adrianne, where's the girl? The one that helps you? Where did she go?"
The shocked look on miss Avenicci's face caught me off guard, and I realized that I still looked like a walking mechanical corpse. Hurriedly, I removed my headgear, and once visible, I repeated my questions. She leaned back on her stool and replied, "I sent her on a supply run to Solitude. Why do you ask?"
I could not reply with the truth. Nobody would believe a story like mine. No, I had to keep it to myself. "I have questions that I must ask her," I replied. "She brought up certain questions last time I saw her, and I was hoping to learn the answers which I crave." Adrianne nodded her head, and I continued, "When did she leave the city?"
"Oh," Adrianne responded, "It hasn't been more than two hours. Perhaps I could help you with some answers?"
My thoughts raced. Could I tell her just a part of my crazy story? No. No, she couldn't be trusted. But she was the only one who might know the answers to my questions! Apparently my thinking took longer in the real world than I thought, and she said, "Whenever you finish your mental breakdown, let me know if you need anything."
I snapped my attention back to her face. My hunger hadn't been satiated in a few days, and now it flared. Before I could stop myself, I lunged over the counter, knocking Adrianne from her perch on the stool, and pinned her to the floor. My eyes reflected in hers, and I could see the glowing red irises. Still lacking control, I opened my mouth and snarled, my long teeth dragging across the soft skin of her neck. I ran my tongue down her jugular, and was about to rip into her, when I remembered why I was there. Like a whipped beast, I scrambled back, shaking. My voice shook, but I managed to ask, "What is the girl's name? Where is she from?"
Adrianne had fear filling her eyes as she edged away from me, not daring to look away from my eyes. Her voice was weak, but she forced herself to say, "I… I don't know who she is. All I know is that… Well she said she came from Solitude. She never even told me her name."
As I strolled through the gates of Solitude, I could feel the sun trying to eat through my coverings. People surrounded me, and if it hadn't been for an unlucky bandit on the road to the city, I'd probably have lunged at a few of them, though not because I wanted to. A man stood atop a small stone stage to the right of the gates, his feet and hands bound tightly. A few guards stood near him, and a man in an executioner's hood tossed a massive axe from hand to hand, obviously impatient. The people around me yelled insults, and even children spat in his direction. The insults all had one thing in common: this man had let a regicidal murderer go free.
I wanted to pass by, but the crowd was blocking my way. Instead, I stood and watched as a captain placed his foot on the back of a kneeling man and forced him to place his head on a chopping block. The leather clad executioner twirled his cruel axe and then raised it above his head. A grin spread across his face, and his axe dropped to the block. The sickening sound of steel slicing through flesh, severing bone, and stealing the life of another rolled out over the suddenly silent crowd. My nose twitched at the delicious smell of blood, but just as I began walking toward the body, I saw a familiar girl walking away from the bloody scene.
I followed her through the city, and though she seemed to have no destination, I stalked her like a fool. Finally, she made her way to a balcony that overlooked a courtyard near the military headquarters. Below us, a wedding was taking place. I didn't recognize either of the members of the lovely couple, but then again, I'd been away from civilization for a very long time. I placed my hand on the girl's shoulder, and before I could say anything, she whirled around to face me.
My chest hurt. Specifically, my heart. I looked down, and found the hilt of a sword protruding from my armored chest. The blade was blessed by a God of some kind, my guess was Meridia, and it burned with holy flames. Since I was an abomination, it had melted a hole in both the front and back of my armor, which glowed red hot around the blade. I could feel the holy fire burning through my body, devouring the vampirism and destroying my body. As I crumpled to the ground, she pulled the toothpick style sword from me, which stopped the burning within my armor, but did not grant me continued life.
The girl knelt by my torso and leaned in close to my ear. In low tones, she spoke to me in my final moments. "I know that you want answers, and since you will be no more, I'll give them to you. I am an Assassin of the Dark Brotherhood, and unfortunately, you must take the blame for my actions here today. But in answer to the other questions that I know you have, I will say this: I am the Player. This entire world is my plaything. Each one of you exists only to bring me pleasure, and I cannot die. I am your God, be proud to have died by my hand."
The Player stood, sheathed her sword, and surveyed the scene below her once more. As my soul left my body, I looked at myself and wondered at the hole the size of a dinner plate that had been burned in my chest. I swirled through the air toward her sheathed sword as she leapt into the air and kicked a statue down onto the bride of this beautiful ceremony.
From time to time I think about that day and remember what it was like to see the sword that I now power plunged through my chest. Every time the Player grasps the handle of her sword, I feel the energy surge through my soul. Many have joined us here, and I'm sure much time has passed. Lately though, nobody has touched our blade. Wait! I feel a touch, but it is not the player. She is stronger. This one has seen the void and has now returned.