Chapter Title Translation - Broken Prophecy

Kaius hauled back on the set of chains, grunting and growling to himself at the sheer force required to move them back even the tiniest of inches. They were thick, each link half as thick as his wrist and each were made of some of the strongest steel he had ever seen. Only a destruction mage with a lot of time on their hands could have hoped to have melt their way through or weaken the links enough to break them, and anything short of the Light of Dawn would have struggled to part them at all.

But he hauled on them, swearing and feeling himself sweat as they were slowly inched back and he could feel the corded muscles of his back aching in protest even as he felt the chains shift.

"Enhanced strength to the power of eight… No, nine times that of a normal man. Six times as strong as an average Orsimer."

"Sorine!"

"Improved durability, toughened bones and cartilage. Bone density alone has to be measured in orders of magnitude."

"Fuck sakes Sorine!"

A full head shorter than Kaius, the middle aged Breton women suddenly snapped out of her train of thought and rushed over to the towering doors of the Fortress, moving past the collection of hauling, sweating and sweating Dawnguard as they hauled back on the chains and pulled the portcullis from where it had rusted closed decades before. Kaius, like many of the others was stripped to the waist as they put their muscles and weight into pulling the long unused steel grating from where it had been stuck for so long.

The three separate chains of the portcullis had been replaced with newer, freshly forged chains that each weighed several times more than a man, and as part of the ongoing restoration of the fortress the portcullis and gatehouse was the latest section to be restored.

Sorine Jurard's sandy brown hair bounced as she moved away from where she had been staring at Kaius heaving on one of the chains and quickly scampered up the nearby scaffolding. The stone grooves down each side of the gateway had a set of steel rails set into them to assist in the lowering and raising of the enormous metal grating but time and neglect had corroded them like the rest of the fortress. The spoked wheels in the gatehouse had been dismantled and replaced with a trio of enormous pulleys to run the chains down from the gatehouse itself down to the ground floor. This, as Sorine had explained was going to be the only way that they were going to be able to free the portcullis from where it had rusted closed so long ago.

With the application of dwemer oil and the not-so-careful ministrations of a heavy crowbar in Mogrul's green fists those on the chains felt the portcullis shift slightly before it came free to the metallic shrieks of the damned. It took fifteen of them on the chains to have the strength necessary to lower the portcullis all the way down where it locked itself into the floor, but their cheers drowned out the metallic scraping as it came to a rest.

Kaius dropped his length of chain and wiped his brow with the back of a grime streaked hand. Of the three sets of chains, he had one all to himself while it took seven members of the Dawnguard on each of the others. While obviously gifted with all things engineering and mechanical, Sorine was proving to be as easily distracted as a Khajiit in a warehouse filled with skooma, flitting from one thing to another. In the space of two minutes she had gone from supervising the teams working on the chain, to studying the material composition of the stonework on the floors, to commenting about and taking notes on Kaius' vampiric strength and durability and everything in between.

"She's fixed." Gunmar said and he began feeding his team's length through the wheels they had bolted into the floor of the main hall. They had initially tried to replace them in the actual gatehouse above the doors until Sorine had confirmed that the floors were no longer structurally sound enough to take the strain.

"That should slow down anything thinking of coming in through the front door at least." Kaius moved over and helped threat his length of chain through its wheel, ignoring the usual shuffling from the closest vampire hunters as he got close.

"Two thousand, eight hundred and fifty six kilograms of alloy forged in a one-to-five ratio of ebony and steel." The gleam in Sorine's eyes was almost sexual as she looked over the metal in front of her with her brain alight with calculations. "Strong enough to withstand dragonfire I'd wager."

Kaius' laugh drew her and everyone else attention. "That's a wager I would take you up on."

"What? Oh… That's right. You have experienced dragonfire so I suppose you would be the expert of the subject."

There were more than one set of eyes that were drawn to the enormous burn scars that covered a majority of Kaius' torso but he shrugged it away. Sorine's words may have been harsh but unlike the others there didn't seem to be any hate or loathing in her tone. He wondered, and not for the first time whether her brain was wired the same way as anyone else.

More grunting and swearing ensured as the three spoked wheels bolted into the floor where hauled back and the portcullis was raised once more. This time there was an obvious reduction in metallic scraping and grinding as the oil that Sorine had continued applying did what it was designed to.

"How's it all going Kaius?"

Turning from the chained wheel, Kaius glanced over to where Sofia and Lydia were making their way from the direction of the training halls. All three of them had been alternating or working together to train the Dawnguard the best methods for fighting vampires but Kaius was getting called upon to assist with his vampiric nature. "Good. Gatehouse is secured and repaired. Break time I'm guessing?"

Like an experienced conjurer, a bottle of alcohol appeared in Sofia's hand and she grinned. "You bet. The morning session is over and there are a few who will be licking their wounds for a while."

"Didn't beat them too badly?"

"Only the ones that deserved it." Lydia replied. Out of all of them, Lydia's attitude was the coldest and was almost on par with Isran's when it came to Kaius. She still followed him and obeyed him but she didn't refer to him or his title as thane anymore. She hadn't since Dimhollow.

Kaius couldn't help but laugh under his breath at what sort of training his two companions had provided. Their abilities were not to be underestimated and this was a mistake that many of the newer recruits initially made in their first sessions with the two women.

Several members of the Dawnguard began filing in through the reopened gateway, some carrying various supplies and piles of equipment from the wagon that had been drawn up outside. Every day a wagon or two would arrive bearing a considerable amount of material for either repairing the fortress or allowing those within it to be armed, armoured and fed. While he was uncertain where all the money was coming from, he had recently become aware that some of the jarls of several holds where sending money to the Order. Jarl Ravencrone was apparently the largest donor but she was not alone.

The two men who walked inside immediately drew the attention of all present. They were both noticeably different to the collection of ex-stormcloaks, Legion trained soldiers, sell-swords, hunters and daytallers who made up the majority of the Dawnguard. Both were dressed in robes; one a rich if weather beaten orange robes of a priest of Arkay, and the other in a tattered grey set of robes that was as light at the hair on his head. The priest of Arkay was solidly built, filling out his robes with pure muscle that seemed at odds with his profession while the other robed man was well on his way into his fifth decade of life. Both walked through the refurbished gatehouse and looked about with a combination of interest and curiosity.

"No! No! Your kind aren't welcome here, especially you!"

Isran had a habit of appearing unannounced and once again he proved this ability, storming through the press with a thunderous expression on his face that was wholly directed to the orange robed priest.

"Isran! Arkay told me that I'd find you here. Quite a nice place you have."

"Yes, it is. You can now make it even better by turning your arse around and marching straight back to where ever it is you came from!"

"Oh shit." Gunmar murmured, brushing the dirt and oil off his hands down the front of his tunic while sharing an uneasy expression with Sorine.

"Friend of yours?" the giggle from Sofia was infectious and despite themselves Isran's comrades smiled wearily.

"Not really, but we all go way back."

"Turn around? I haven't just spent the past months roaming Skyrim at Arkay's behest to simply turn around!" The priest's voice rose almost to a feverish pitch of indignation. For a moment his eyes rose up to the veiling far above everyone's head as he shrugged. "See what I have to deal with? Never a word of thanks, just ill-will and…"

He trailed off, his eyes, bright and barely focussed came to rest on Kaius and he openly gaped in astonishment. Astonishment that quickly turned into an all-consuming rage that left his face flushed red.

"Unclean monster! Undead filth! I will smite you from this life and the next!"

Kaius couldn't help but flinch away from the way that the priest recognised what he was and the insanity that lurked within the man's gaze. Both of his eyes were bright and gleaming, the purity of his faith being overwhelmed by the way his entire face erupted in spasms as he suddenly broke into a run straight at Kaius.

"By the holy catechisms of Arkay I banish you from my sight! You shall be cast down to dust and ash and forever…" Again he stopped in mid-sentence and even stopped his bullish charge straight at Kaius. There was no doubt that the priest had intended on attacking him head on with faith and fury and a set of rosary beads wrapped in a calloused fist, but just as quickly as he had begun he had stopped.

"I… No… But I… are you sure?"

Kaius, Sofia and Lydia shared and uncomfortable glance between themselves and they also noted that they weren't the only ones doing so at the strange priest's actions. Several members of the Dawnguard were taking careful steps away from the man, and Isran was pressing his fingers into the bridge of his nose.

The fist and the rosary beads were lowered, the fighter's stance drooped and just as quickly as he had gone on the attack he had stopped. "Fine. I'll leave him alone. I think you're making a mistake though."

Unable to contain herself any longer, Sofia looked around the room and up at the ceiling where the Priest's eyes were wandering aimlessly. "Who are you talking to?"

Snapping back into focus again, the priest locked his gaze on Sofia and snapped his whole head so quickly it gave her a start. "Arkay of course. Who else would I be speaking to?"

"You are talking… to a God?" Lydia said, very slowly and carefully as though she was talking to a child or someone with brain damage.

"Of course! I've found that in order to speak to an equal, I am forced to converse with a Divine." The twitching resumed and snapped his whole head to the side in an obvious tic. "Shut up!"

Lydia was taken aback, as where everyone else present. "Excuse me?"

"I wasn't talking to you." The eyes flashed in her direction before turning to the ceiling again. "This is some kind of joke you're playing! Isn't it bad enough you're making me come help out this Redguard fool, but a vampire? I… really? You're serious? I think your head's been stuck in the clouds for too long."

"Arkay isn't the only one." Kaius heard Gunmar mutter under his breath and he could almost feel Isran's sigh even with the distance between them as the priest continued talking into the air.

"Are you quite finished Florentius?"

The smile was truthful and without any sign of the twitching that had just been plaguing it mere seconds before. "I am, Arkay is still blabbering on as he does. I don't know why I put up with him at all sometimes."

Isran's scowl deepened even further. "Why are you here?"

"To help support a noble cause of course. Arkay likes the idea of the Dawnguard and he sent me this way and that collecting a few things for you."

"Things…" The sheer level of sarcasm dripping from Isran's every word was almost as thick as the dwarven oil that coated Sorine to the elbows. "Things like what?"

"Oh, well… some… things, I suppose. Remedies, cures, a poison or two." Florentius shrugged and Kaius saw the way how his shoulders bunched and twisted under his robes. The body underneath was as hard as teak and was not that typically found with a man of the cloth. "Look, I'll be honest with you. I have no idea, but I'm sure we can find something worth everyone's time."

"Who is this then?" moving away from the twitching priest Isran roughly brushed past, moving over to the other robed individual who had accompanied him into the fortress.

Clad in a rough, tattered grey robe that had seen far too long of a journey, the man looked up into Isran's cold expression and bowed slightly. He was by far the oldest of them all present, barring Kaius with his hair turning a faded grey that matched his clothes.

"My name is Dexion Evicus."

"An Imperial. What brings you here with this man?" The gloved thumb that Isran threw over his shoulder was as subtle as a catapult hurling its ammunition at a castle and the elderly man tried his best not to meet Isran's gaze.

"I… Ah. This man rescued me from vampires a few weeks ago. Said that the Dawnguard would need of my services before I returned to Cyrodiil."

"And just what sort of services do you provide?"

"Well, as an acolyte of the Elder Moth Temple I can perform various readings and scrying as I doubt that a group such as yourselves would have an Elder Scroll in your possession." The sudden stony silence crashed down hard on him as he saw the amazement on everyone expressions. "You... You can't possibly have an Elder Scroll?"

No one moved, barely anyone could breathe as all of the members of the Dawnguard knew what was locked away in the depths of the fort. There was only one person who had any control or ability to speak and that was Florentius, bouncing on the balls of his feet with a childlike grin on his face.

"I told you! I told you that Arkay said they had one!"

The preparations for the reading had taken several hours despite the feverish excitement that had gripped the entire Order. Men and women alike were scurrying about, undertaking a thousand minor tasks and almost tripping over themselves in their haste to assist the grey robed moth priest. The Elder Scroll, locked away in heaviest chest available behind several doors as thick as a man's shoulders was brought out under armed guard and Isran was taking no chances. Every member of the order was fully armed and armoured and on alert as they had done every time the scroll had been brought out.

Dexion was a small, frail appearing man completely at odds to the tough, hard-bitten hunters that he was now sharing the fortress with. There was however a strange energy that filled him as he laid eyes on the glimmering artefact as it was pulled out of its lockbox in the main hall. His eyes seemed to light with fascination and a semi-religious awe at the sight, moving forward and taking it reverently out of the hands of the two Dawnguard who had been chosen to bring it from the vaults.

"Ah. It truly is one of the Scrolls. Remarkable." He said softly, taking a few short paces with the rolled up artefact in his hands.

The two Dawnguard shared expressions of unease with each other and backed away, placing the lockbox on the stone floor and not wasting any time in moving away. By now the hall was filled with every member of the Dawnguard not on guard or patrolling, but they were all watching the Moth Priest warily.

In Dexion's hands the scroll seemed to shimmer and glow with otherworldly energies, pulsating in time with a beat that no one could hear let alone understand. It was normal sized for a scroll but the rollers were impressively long and made of something that was gold but not at the same time. Undefinable gems could be seen gleaming across the otherworldly metal and for anyone looking upon them they were unable to even define what colour any of the gems were. All could and did swear that they were sure the gems were never the same colour each time they looked at them.

The whole scroll itself radiated power, and for those such as Sofia, Serana and Kaius with magical ability they had difficulties focusing on the scroll and Dexion. Every few seconds the scroll seemed to twitch and vibrate, moving as though it wasn't in sync with the rest of reality. Kaius found himself rubbing at his eyes after the first few seconds at it appeared as though the scroll was writhing in the Moth Priest's grasp.

Steadying himself Dexion held the Scroll in both hands, one firmly grasping the top of the rollers, while the other held the thin strip of the scrolls base as he prepared to unwind and reveal the scroll itself. "Now, if everyone will please be quiet, I must concentrate."

Whether it was the chill of the fortress, their building uncertainty or some form of power of the scroll no one was certain but a chill ran through the entire assembled group as one, leaving them covered in gooseflesh. Closing his eyes, Dexion breathed out heavily and with a surprising amount of resolve, unfurled the scroll in one smooth motion.

"I see a vision before me, an image of a great bow." He said, his eyes opening and staring unblinkingly in the face of the Elder Scroll. "I… I know this weapon! It is Auriel's Bow!"

The collective wave of unease was obvious through the hunters but it was not from the Priest's words. As soon as the scroll opened Dexion had taken on the same unnatural nature of the scroll, his entire form becoming hazy and twitching as though his entire being was vibrating against the grip reality had upon it. His voice too had subtly changed, sounding distinctly off in a way that no one could truly put their finger on. Some noticed to considerable alarm that his words were no longer matching the movement of his mouth.

"Now a voice whispers, saying "Among the night's children, a dread lord will rise. In an age of strife, when dragons return to the realm of men, darkness will mingle with light and the night and day will be as one."

His arms were shaking now, as though he had been holding the scroll aloft for hours but despite the obvious tremor of fatigue there was something in the way that he stood. It was almost as though he couldn't lower the scroll, or that something wasn't letting him lower it.

"The voice fades and the words begin to shimmer and distort. But… Wait… there is more here." Dexion's mouth and tongue twitched and his was left opening and closing his jaw as though he was in great pain or suffering from some terrible illness. "The secret of the bow's power is written elsewhere. I think there is more to the prophecy, recorded in other scrolls. Yes… Yes… I see them now. One contains the ancient secrets of the dragons, and the other speaks of the potency of ancient blood."

"My vision darkens, and I see no more." The floor beneath his feet seemed to groan noiselessly as Dexion's grip on the scroll finally wavered and it allowed him to roll it up once more. Trembling, the old man's arms were shaking as though he suffered some terribly palsy and none of the assembled hunters moved to his aid, too afraid of the relic that was still clutched in his hands.

Kaius was among the first to break out of their stupor and move forward to catch the Moth Priest as he began to droop. Between him and the priest of Arkay, Florentius they managed to keep him steady as one of the hunters plucked the scroll from his willing hands and drop it into the lockbox as though it had stung her.

Dexion was not doing well, the toll of the vison and even the mere act of opening the scroll leaving him looking as though all the moisture had been sucked from his skin and leaving his flesh withered like sun dried leather. He had aged decades in just a few minutes, but what was worse was the way his eyes were horrifically bloodshot to the point where there was no white left in them at all. As they cradled him down to the floor while another hunter dragged over a chair, the tiniest trickle of blood began making its way down his nose into his beard and out of the corner of an eye.

"To know the complete prophecy, we must have the other two scrolls." he whispered, his unseeing gaze turning and locking directly into Kaius eyes.

The elderly priest's strength seemed to steadily flow out of him as they lowered him into the chair and Kaius could feel Isran's presence at his back. The veteran vampire hunter's gaze only wavered from Dexion's pale form for a moment to send a distrustful glance at Kaius, but there was a hint of softness in his voice as he moved in to assist.

"Come on old man. You should get some rest."

Letting the hunters and the priest take Dexion away, Kaius rose to his feet and looked down at the lockbox with the scroll now safely contained once more. Three scrolls needed to unlock the full prophecy. The Bow of Auriel. Night and day becoming as one. He knew that he should have been more concerned about the fact that they would need to find two more scrolls but he couldn't help but wonder how quickly the world would succumb to the other threat if Harkon did what Serana said he was intending to do.

As he looked up and his eyes met those of his companions and the shadowed form of Serana standing off to the side, he realised that he was the only one who understood that vampires would be the least of their concerns if the world was plunged into eternal night.