The entrance to Dimhollow Crypt was anything but hidden. It gaped at the top of a set of crudely carved steps, lit torches on either side, and Emma thought that it was a wonder anything was hidden in such an obvious location. Of course, knowing the usual nature of dungeons in Skyrim, any number of traps, puzzles, locks, and monsters could stand between her and whatever the vampires were searching for, so she kept her guard up as she entered. Voices echoed from the chamber ahead. From the few words she could pick out she gathered that two more Vigilants had come in, one had been killed- but not before taking out two vampires- and the other, Adalvald, seemed to know more than he was letting on and so had been taken further into the cave. Emma sized up the situation; two vampires stood at the far side of the cavern, each scanning the entranceway for movement. Nearby, two creatures Emma had never seen before stalked back and forth. They were doglike, but instead of fur and flesh were made of what looked like pure black, rotten muscle, and they were constantly surrounded by clouds of black smoke. She weighed her options and ultimately decided to kill the dogs first. By the time the vampires were aware, she could have the dogs dead and her crossbow ready to take them out from afar. To her surprise, her plan went off perfectly- she was expecting something to go wrong, seeing as how she was entirely ignoring most of her father's advice at the moment- and she was able to open the gate at the far side of the cavern unimpeded. As she predicted, there were a great number of traps, puzzles, locks and monsters as she progressed through the cave. Tripwires, gates with hidden levers or switches, large spiders, and even more vampires slowed her down, but not enough to keep her from reaching the main chamber. The door opened to a platform, hidden from view of the rest of the very impressive room. There was no ceiling in sight, just blank darkness, and she wondered how far underground she was. Directly ahead, a set of stairs led down, to a platform from which angry voices were drifting.
"I won't tell you anything," a man panted as Emma crept forward. "My oath to Stendarr is stronger than any suffering you could inflict upon me." On either side of the stairs stood two statues of huge, slouching creatures. Shaking off the feeling that the eyes were unusually lifelike, she took shelter behind one and peeked out at the platform below; an elf and what was presumably a Nord stood over a Vigilant of Stendarr-most likely Adalvald- the Nord looming threateningly while the elf watched, though her attention mostly seemed to be on a huge, circular platform surrounded by arches behind her.
"I believe you, Vigilant," the Nord sneered. "And I don't think you even understand what you've found here. So go, and meet your beloved Stendarr." He held out his hand, and what looked like a thin red glowing thread stretched from his palm to the Vigilant's heart. Emma realized too late that this thread was draining Adalvald's life, and by the time she lifted her crossbow, his body had gone limp and the elf was fixing the other vampire with a disbelieving glare.
"Are you sure that was wise?" she demanded. "He still might have told us something. We haven't gotten anywhere ourselves with-"
"He knew nothing," the Nord snapped, pushing past her. The elf seemed excited that he was finally heading for the larger platform, and she followed him with a skip in her step. "He served his purpose by leading us here, and now it's up to us to bring Lady Cora the prize." Emma craned her neck, wanting to watch them more, but the arches impeded her view and she sighed to herself. If she killed the vampires now, she had no idea if she'd be able to uncover "the prize" herself. But, she supposed it would be safer for it to stay hidden than to fall into the hands of the vampires. During the time it took her to sneak across the bridge and get a good angle, the vampires were quiet, pacing around and around the platform, examing the ground. Now that she was closer, she could see that the platform was made up of a series of rings; a small pentagon inside of a circle in the middle, and a set of four progressively larger stone rings around it. Deep grooves stretched from each corner of the central pentagon, all the way to the outer ring. At different points along each of these lines was a brazier, each resting at the intersection of the line and a ring. In the center was a simple stone pedestal. The vampires largely ignored the pedestal in favor of the braziers. They examined them closely and even moved them along the grooves, but nothing happened. Finally, Emma grew impatient and discreetly disposed of the vampires, eager to examine the puzzle- and she was quite sure it was a puzzle- herself. The braziers were full of ashes, and most certainly hadn't been lit in a long, long time. She moved them around a bit, poked at the ashes and even tried striking a fire in one that had a few pieces of charcoal intact. Nothing moved or changed. Once her frustration started to take hold, she turned bitterly to the center of the platform and her eyes settled on the pedestal.
"Worth a try?" she muttered to herself as she approached it. The top of it was rounded with a small indent in the middle, and she wondered if it could be a button. So, she pushed it and immediatly wished she hadn't. Stinging pain shot through her hand as a long, sharp shard of glass actually came through the stone and punctured her palm. She jerked away before it could entirely impale her hand, but the motion dragged it along her palm and nearly tore it open. She cried out, backing away, but before she could get far a purple glow erupted from the cracks around the innermost ring, and along the entire length of one of the grooves. Still nursing her hand but intrigued by what seemed to be a big step in a good direction, Emma turned her attention to the brazier along the illuminated groove. The glow extended all the way to the inner crack of the outermost ring so, out of curiosity, she pushed the brazier to where the glow ended. The ashes inside ignited, and the glow extended along the crack, over to the next groove where it stopped at one of the inner rings. Following this pattern, Emma lit all of the braziers. For a moment she worried nothing was going to happen, but all at once the rings animated; the outermost ring stayed where it was, but the next lowered. Each in turn lowered a little more than the last until the platform resembled a bowl shape. The central pentagon, however, raised instead of lowered, and its sides were exposed as the rings fell away. When all of the pieces stopped moving, the rings acted as steps to the monolith in the middle. Despite knowing it could be incredibly dangerous to do so, Emma approached the monolith and gently laid her uninjured hand on one of its 5 sides. And to her surprise, it rumbled, shook, and slowly lowered into the crack. Emma blinked once, twice. Her mouth fell open and she watched, spellbound as a young woman, her eyes closed as gingerly as if she were sleeping, fell forward. Her arms, which had been folded across her chest shot forward just in time to catch herself. The moment Emma realized she was alive she knelt down, extending a hand to help her up. The woman took it hesitantly- Emma shivered at the icy touch- and turned her face up towards Emma. Her eyes slid open. Emma gasped, jerked her hand away, stood up. Fiery eyes glowed at her from the darkness. The woman didn't react. She still seemed to be in the process of waking up. She groaned, struggled to her feet.
"Who... where's..." the woman shook her head and her shaking voice strengthened. "Who sent you here?"
"Who were you expecting?" Emma asked, her hand resting discreetly on her crossbow.
"I suppose..." she considered for a moment. "Someone like me, at least."
"A vampire," Emma prompted. The woman nodded, absently brushing smoothing her black hair as she fixed her gaze on Emma.
"The Dawnguard would want me to kill you," Emma told her evenly. To her surprise the woman laughed.
"Not fond of vampires, are they?" she chuckled. "Look, kill me if you want, but if people are looking for me then there's something a lot bigger happening. I can help you find out what."
"How?"
"My family used to live on an island west of Solitude," the woman replied. "I would guess they still do. Can you take me to them?" Despite the overwhelming feeling that she should just kill her on the spot, she nodded. The woman mirrored Emma's gesture and smiled shyly, maybe sensing Emma's distrust.
"Good," she said in a quiet voice. "Thank you. I'm Regina, by the way. Pleased to meet you." Emma was careful to remain stoic as she told Regina her own name, and she didn't shoulder her crossbow as they made their way back to where Emma had come in. She groaned in frustration, because the doorway she'd come through was now closed and locked. It wouldn't budge, no matter how hard she pushed. She sighed, leaning back against it and catching Regina's eye.
"Any idea how to get out of here?" she asked, and the other woman shrugged.
"Your guess is as good as mine," she admitted. "It looks like it's changed quite a bit since I was last here. Or, you know, awake here." Emma grimaced in frustration, forgetting for a moment that she was hurt and smacking the door with her injured palm. She swore loudly and Regina reached for Emma's hand. Emma tried to pull away but the other woman held it tightly.
"It was my tomb that did this to you," she said, her eyebrows furrowing in concentration. "Let me help." And Emma watched as the hand that wasn't holding hers produced a yellow, sparkling glow. Regina turned Emma's hand so that her bleeding palm was facing upwards, and made several slow passes over it with the ball of magic. Warmth replaced the pain and spread through the rest of her body as the magic closed the wound and erased the blood, and when it was over she had the uncomfortable feeling that she had just shared an intimate moment with this stranger. She cleared her throat, reluctantly withdrew her hand, and mumbled her thanks, to which Regina nodded.
"Now if we could just get out of here," she said as she pushed past the other woman. They crossed back over the circular platform and were pleased to see another platform, and a wide open door.
"I just hope there's a way out through th-" Shattering stone interrupted Regina as the two statues on either side of the door exploded, their rocky exterior crumbling away to expose skin like leather.
"What the hell are those?!" Emma demanded, sending a bolt into the creature barreling towards her before realizing it would be futile and instead drawing her sword and putting up her shield. It collided with the steel barricade, forcing her backwards, and nearby she heard Regina cry out.
"They're gargoyles," Regina snapped. "You've never seen one before?! Clearly whoever you're with sent their best!" Emma ignored the sass, deciding that being mauled by a statue was as good a reason as any to get sassy. She braced herself against her shield, keeping one eye on Regina. The vampire was keeping her distance from her attacker, but just barely; it seemed to be gaining on her, mostly unaffected by the many spells she blasted at it, and Emma wondered briefly how much of the vampires' plans hinged on this woman, and how many of the Dawnguard's troubles would disappear if Regina were to... But suddenly the gargoyle caught up to Regina, and a leathery, clawed hand swiped at her, knocking her backwards, and Emma felt a fire lighting in her gut. Without putting much thought into an escape plan, she darted in front of Regina and the gargoyle's next blow landed squarely on her already bent shield. The other statue followed shortly, and Emma struggled to recall the last time she truly feared for her life. But even as the gargoyles' claws literally drained her life force, she felt from behind a spreading warmth, and growing strength.
"I don't know how long I can keep this up, Emma," Regina called over the clanging metal and slashing claws. "Try to make it quick!" Biting back a sassy remark of her own, Emma did her best to "make it quick." Finally one of the statues staggered to its knees, and Emma quickly thrust her sword through its head. The other didn't last much longer. Emma fell, exhausted, gasping for air, and watched as Regina did the same. They were quiet for a while.
"You're hurt," Emma noted dully. Regina looked down, at the three claw marks across her chest.
"Not badly," she assured the other woman.
"Can you heal yourself?" Emma asked, and Regina shook her head.
"Healing spells and potions don't work on the undead," she explained, poking at the wound and wincing. "Don't worry, eventually the same magic that's kept me from decomposing for over 200 years will fix it." All at once Emma remembered who she was, and who she was talking to, and she hardened her face. If Isran saw her, no, if her parents saw her chatting with a vampire after saving that vampire's life...
"I wasn't worried," she snapped. "Just curious." Regina rolled her eyes and took a deep breath.
"Very well," she said with sudden determination. "Come on, let's find a way out of here." Despite her shaking legs and depleted magic, Regina rose to her feet with very little effort and stalked on through the door. Emma followed shortly, her sword and ruined shield ready to defend Regina.