REDEEMED BLOOD
Chapter 2: Showtime
Djeski warily eased left out of the passage with her arrow ready to fire and slowly sidled along the wall to try and get a view of the hidden foot dragger and of the chamber in general. There didn't appear to be any other openings, but while the tenant eluded her, she could barely make out a pair of small tables standing side-by-side against the back wall and sandwiched between slews of jumbled crates and barrels. There was something atop the tables, but it was too far away to clearly see.
Seconds were as hours as Djeski kept edging along the wall, and despite her having gone a good quarter of the way around, there remained no sign of the walker even though the footsteps were still softly sounding. She hated the thought of pursuing the noise into the moss and vines, but she started to wonder if endlessly circling the tangle while unaware of the number and positions of the inhabitants was any less dangerous. Indeed, she wasn't even certain that all the footsteps she was hearing came from a single source. She briefly pondered the dilemma, and finally decided that she was better off in the overgrown center than the tuftier edge. She quietly put away her bow and started for a bundle of thick vines.
Djeski the Huntress traveled lightly for a reason. Instead of peeling past the vines and heading into the mess with weapon in hand, she took hold of the vines and shimmied up them as quickly and silently as she could while watching for her quarry. She climbed up near the top and slowly traversed on vine bundles while keenly watching the ground below like a hawk hunting prey. It took about a minute of following the steps, but she eventually came upon a humanoid form with long, scraggly black hair in a sackcloth gown and some kind of extremely worn hide shoes that scraped the earth with each step. The special blend of minced mushrooms and plants inside a pouch on her belt served to hide her scent from beings such as vampires, and so she was in complete stealth.
The creature's back was to Djeski for the moment, and so the huntress quickly skirted to a long vine bundle a little beyond its current direction. She inverted herself on the vines and hung by her legs as she took a special coil of blackened rope and straightened it. At one end was a taught noose, but it wasn't a typical hangman's noose. On the inside of its bottom was a serrated steel blade that had been joined to the rope via interweaving some rope fibers through holes punched into the blade's base. Furthermore, she always kept the blade smeared with a gel that contained silver dust, which both prevented corrosion and enhanced the tool's effectiveness against undead. It also served well as a stealth weapon since the blade sliced right through the throat and neck muscles, leaving the snap of the spinal column the only possible sound. It was her own personal invention, and she was proud of it. It had helped her in countless situations where direct attacks were ill-advised.
Djeski ran the rope's straight end through a loop in some vines beside her own perch and held it with one hand before gently lowering the noose down among some moss with the other. She was facing her mark now, and she could clearly see his pallid, emaciated-looking face with very gaunt cheeks. He appeared to be just slowly walking around aimlessly, like a lost puppy. It was the complete opposite of the common misconception that all vampires were suave and well-mannered beings who carried themselves well and spoke seductively. Djeski knew that the wild ones far away from civilization were sometimes no different than any other feral creature in the sense that their lifestyle was simple and primitive, primarily dominated by the constant search for food and every-so-often honeyed by the occasional taste of a mortal person's blood. She glanced around and, seeing nobody else, prepared her strike.
Djeski kept the noose as still as possible, and when the vampire meandered past it, she gently swung it around in front of him and around his head. The huntress then acted quickly. Before he could react, she jerked the rope upward. The lock proved true, cinching the noose's specially sensitive slipknot and digging the blade into his throat, silencing any potential screams and damaging his neck. Then, she grabbed the end of the rope with both hands and started pulling vigorously. The rope's black coating acted as a lubricant as well as camouflage, and so her toned arms were able to hoist the freshly deceased vampire up speedily and virtually noiselessly. Once he was up there with her, she picked up his legs and ran his lower body through another loop in the vines before giving the rope a final tug and pulling his head and upper body through the vine loop that served as her pulley bar. She then loosened the noose and removed it. She wiped the bloodied blade off on a moss patch before recoiling the device and refastening it to her belt.
Djeski continued quietly making her way through the foliage and listening and searching for any other enemies. After several fruitless minutes, she was satisfied she could safely descend and inched her way down a thick bunch of vines.
Once back on the floor, Djeski drew her sword and readied some flames as she maneuvered through the thicker inner bush to the thinner rim. She came out near the tables and boxes she saw when she first entered the room. She could see more opened and dirtied coffins among damaged barrels and crates, and the object on the tables was now plainly visible as an extremely crude makeshift combination alembic and calcinator comprised of whatever pots and tubing were available. There were a few dusty bottles strewn about it, most empty and a few containing unknown liquids. She guessed there must have been a recent experiment since she could smell the wet muskiness and ashen residue of washed and burned ingredients.
Djeski casually surveyed the motley bunch of containers. Most were broken open and rotting away, and the few good ones left didn't seem to be cared for either. There was nothing for her with them, though, and she turned to start searching for other passages, since she doubted the halfway delirious vampire she just lynched was the only resident of a cave like this.
Djeski was about to leave for another portion of the room when she finally noticed a crack of flickering brightness seeping from behind a thick blanket of moss. She warily approached the light and stood to the side of the moss, slightly peeling back a few strands to try and see past. There was a slightly small hallway somewhat lit by a trio of torches against the left wall that opened up into another small, also lit room like the first one she had reached. She couldn't make out much of the room – only some wooden, square-shaped object with a spigot in it that resembled an improvised wine cask. However, she could partly hear what sounded like a pair of voices talking with one another. One sounded masculine with some kind of human-elven mixed accent, and the other femininely human with a tinge of southern drawl typical of the region. The voices carried the typical serpentine undertones that manifested in the speech of reclusive vampires that lived away from mortal civilization.
Djeski silently huffed to herself. She didn't like using what precious little invisibility potion she had unless it was for a very high-risk target or some other extremely good reason. Trying to sneak down a lit hallway into a lit room while visible was suicidal, however. Knowing this, she slipped a small vial out of one of her armored jerkin's inside pockets, popped its cork, and downed the bluish draught within.
The huntress instantly vanished from sight. Wary of her time limit, she skirted through the moss and hurriedly tiptoed down the small passage. The conversation grew louder and clearer as she went, and as she came upon the room, she followed the voices to a pair of semi-threadbare vampires seated on some barrels among some crates and a couple stacks of coffins with cups of blood in their hands. There was one hallway, just off to the duo's right. Both appeared fairly mortal thanks to their drinks, but their complexions weren't quite totally unvampiric, leading Djeski to believe they had been nursing cups of animal blood. Most notably, they still showed the unsettling bright red eyes born of hunger. From the subject of their banter, it appeared Djeski's first kill of the delve had been something of a scatterbrain.
"So, whaddya reckon that Larsime's doin' right now?" The woman asked in between sips of blood. Her skin was a dull peach color, and her unbound sandy-blonde hair partially framed her slightly gaunt, middle-aged face. She was barefoot, with nothing more than a plain, ankle-length, yellow-green burlap robe on her that looked to be stitched together from old sacks. She sat hunched, and kicked her feet against her barrel.
"I dunno. Probably wanderin' 'round in all that mess again. Guy doesn't know what the hell he's doin' half the time." The man replied. He appeared Cyrodillic with paler skin, and had very short-cropped brown hair atop his somewhat angular face. He was shirtless, and the brownish pants he wore had several large tears in it. He also wore a pair of old sandals. He was leaned against the stack of coffins behind him.
"Heh, yeah. You seen his little 'device' in there on his 'workbench'?" The woman asked.
"Mhmm. And some o' the juice he's made. No idea what that crap might do. Least he keeps to himself, mostly." The man said.
Djeski had an idea of how to deal with the pair, but the passage immediately cornered to the right and hid any wayward traffic. The woman's kicking muffled any footsteps. The seconds ticking by, Djeski whisked over to the hall and peeped around the corner. To her relief, it was an empty, long, straight stretch that eventually ended at a wooden door. It was also lit by torches, but it was narrower and taller than the last one, meaning she could spider her way up to the ceiling and avoid detection. She sheathed her sword and hurriedly sneaked behind the lady vampire, who had set her cup on a crate.
Djeski flipped open a small pocket in her leggings and drew out a pinch of powder. She then reclosed the pocket and carefully sprinkled the dust into the cup of blood, taking care to keep her fingers below the rim so the powder wouldn't become visible once it left her hand. After putting it all in, she gave the blood a quick stir with her index finger before retreating from the pair to wait for her chance. She drifted back over to the hallway to keep watch while the dust did its work.
The two vampires' continued musing about their now deceased cavemate, and the woman took a few more sips of her drink. She smacked her lips in distaste, and Djeski pulled her Dwarven-alloy dagger out of its sheath. Still nobody showed in the hall, and so she crept up next to the man with the dagger in her left hand and ready to strike.
"Not turnin' into a diva about the blood now, are ya?" He teased the woman, noticing her discomfort.
"Nah, this was bearable a second ago, but now it tastes like shit." She replied as she scooted the cup away.
"It's animal blood. Of course it tastes like shit." The man said with a chuckle.
"Hmph. You kn-" The woman started. She was stopped by a sudden feeling of wooziness, followed by a stern cough. Then, her insides ignited and she went to her knees on the ground, sputtering and wheezing.
Before the man had time to realize what was happening, Djeski struck. She jammed the dagger into his throat, cupping her free hand over his mouth to muffle his screams. This dispelled her invisibility, but she was already in control by that point. She wrenched the blade around to ensure lethal damage, and then shoved him into a slump over a couple of boxes. During it all, his friend was powerless to help, knelt on the floor and violently coughing as the searing purge of silver dust ravaged her innards.
Djeski wasted no time in ending her life as well. The huntress bent over, jerked her head up by her blonde locks, and likewise plunged the dagger into her throat, mincing her neck.
After making sure both of them were dead, Djeski quicky wiped her blade off on the lady's shawl and sheathed it. Her abilities were respected all across the province for a reason. In less than thirty seconds, two live vampires were now dead at her feet while she lacked even a scratch.
Djeski stuffed both bodies behind some boxes and looked over the room. There wasn't much there besides the impromptu blood cask. A crude, longish table stood opposite where the vampires were sitting with a few smaller crates tucked underneath it. A few cups and a couple strands of rope were strewn across the tabletop. Besides that and the torches against the walls that lit the room, there was nothing else there.
Djeski headed back to the passage and peered around again. Still nobody had come through, but she could now hear what sounded like agonized screams coming from beyond the door. She kindled a pair of fireballs and eased into the hall. She only had one more invisibility vial, and she wanted to save it for when it was absolutely necessary.
She managed to clear half of the hall, but then she heard what sounded like heavy, metallic footsteps against the stone floor from beyond the door.