Chapter IV- Reunion
Kaius (POV)
I stood in the middle a field, west of Whiterun, far away from the road and the watchtower. With my eyes closed, I breathed in the cool breeze of the night. Along with the breeze, I could hear the crickets chirping and the rustling of the tall grass in the field. I opened my eyes and looked to the sky. The stars were lighting up the sky along with the two moons adding gold and silver colors to the night sky.
."OD AH VIING" I shouted to the sky and waited a minute.
"ROAR!" I smiled as I saw Odahviing flying from the north and circled me. The dragon landed. "Dovahkiin." Odahviing greeted with a bow.
"Odahviing, I need you to take me back to Skuldafn." I said.
"Why do you need to go back to Skuldafn, Dovahkiin?" He asked.
"A friend of mine was exploring the ruin, and she needs my help." I said impatiently.
How did this friend of yours get to Skuldafn?" He asked.
I don't know how I know she needs my help. I can't help her if you don't help me." I said.
He hesitated. "As you wish Dovahkiin."
I got on his back, and we flew towards the Eastmarch mountains. I looked around on the ground and saw the roads and the ruins, the towers, and castles as well as the towns scattered all over the area.
"Why is this friend of yours in Skuldafn?" Odahviing asked.
My attention turned from the view bellow back to the dragon. "I don't know exactly what she is doing there. She said she came across a hidden chamber there. I have searched every area that was not collapsed in that ruin, it's not possible I missed it."
"It is also not uncommon for Dragon Cults to have secret chambers. They used these chambers for rituals or sacrifices." The Dragon replied.
"I guess you are right." I said.
Things went quiet for a bit, I returned my gaze to the view where I saw the walls of Windhelm as well as Kynesgrove. Negotiations for the Civil War have been going smoothly so far. There is the occasional spat between the two leaders where it could lead to a brawl. The main problem was the Thalmor. It seems as if Elenwyn doesn't want the war to end between the two sides. Her presence alone during these meetings agitates Ulfric and the rest of the Stormcloaks. Hopefully, I could think of something to end this war.
"Who is this friend of yours, if I may ask? What is she to you?" the red dragon asked.
"Her name is Serana. She is a good friend." I replied not taking my eyes off the Palace of Kings."
"Just a good friend? Or is there something more than." The dragon stated
"Where are you getting at?" I asked the dragon
"It's a little strange. You could be using valuable time to end the war or working with your fellow Companions. Yet you push those responsibilities aside to help your friend in her time of need." He stated.
"I always come to my friends' aid when they ask, no matter what. Besides, I'm making progress on the negotiations, and the Companions are doing well."
"Even going as far asking for my help, you rarely ask for my assistance?" He asked.
"Yes. There is no way, except by air, that I could get to Skuldafn. I replied.
Over the years I have known her, I've considered her one of my most faithful friends alongside others such as Ralof, Vilkas, Ghorbash, and Frea. I didn't know what the dragon was insinuating. Our friendship is important to both of us.
I saw that we were getting close to the cloud-cloaked mountains. As we enter the clouds, I felt the temperature drop substantially. I used my wrist to block the incoming snow.
"We are here." I heard Odahviing call out.
I still couldn't see anything in this blizzard. I felt him dive towards the ground the snow dying down in the process. Putting my wrist down I saw what should have been the portal to Sovngarde, but instead, I saw a large dark hole in its place.
'When did this happen?' I thought.
"Odahviing, land below the staircase." I pointed to the staircase below the hole. He flew towards the ground and landed. I got off and took in my surroundings. Everything was so bleak and gray. I could see the old Draugr bodies buried in layers snow as well as the dragon skeletons.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! I heard behind me. I turn to see Odahviing rising and about to fly away.
"Thank you!" I yelled.
He roared in response, flying further west. When he disappeared into the clouds, I turned to the stairs that led to the hole and began my ascent. When I got up there, I saw Nahkriin's staff in the pedestal, but something was different about it. Instead of it being silver it was black with some red liquid flowing through it. I leaned past the staff and looked over the edge of the hole. I noticed a staircase clinging to the wall. As I walked over and began the descent, I saw puddles of blood on the floor and the entrance of the stairs. I grabbed a torch and lit it with a small fire from my hand.
As I descended, I started to notice more puddles of blood along with bits of burnt flesh.
"I need to hurry, if this belongs to Serana, she may be in trouble." I thought to myself starting to run down the stairs. I ran down the stairs. If Serana is need of medical help, I knew some restoration magic, I didn't know how long I could keep the restoration going without getting winded and light headed.
The puddles of blood began dwindling in portions while bits of flesh started to become much more frequent and grew in size. I could see light towards the bottom of the staircase. I blew out the torch and entered the small room. When I entered, I saw that a fire was lit and several empty bottles scattered all over the floor. I also noticed two sleeping sacks around the fire. Also, one of the sacs had a body lying on it. I walked over to it slowly and kneeled next to it. I was a man in black vampire armor that was scorched, leaving large portions of his skin exposed. I reached to wake him
"I wouldn't touch him if I were you." I heard a feminine voice say behind me. I smiled and turned around to see Serana emerging from dark stairwell looking at me with a smirk on her face. I happily sighed with relief seeing that she didn't appear harmed in any fashion
"Are you all right? I saw blood and bits of burnt skin on the staircase." I asked.
"I am fine; the skin and blood belong to Velkon." She said referring to the body I almost disturbed.
"So why are you your here?" I asked as I stood over the fire with my arms out.
She sighed. "We came here looking for a potential artifact, according to Velkon this ruin held a chamber that acts as the tomb to an ancient vampire that was immune to sunlight. He believes that if we take a piece of his corpse and add it to the blood chalice, it could grant us immunity to the sun."
I nodded my head for her to continue.
"We came across this chamber when we used that staff outside. Velkon poured some concoction he made at the castle and it opened this chamber. When we entered, we found this room and that crypt door over there." She pointed to the large stone door.
"Behind that door, there is a long hallway that is guarded by six Draugr Deathlords. We came with five Thralls. One of the thralls activated a trap that released the Draugr and slaughtered all of them in a matter of minutes." She paused and inhaled a shaky breath.
"We have fought Deathlords before Serana, why were these a challenge?" I asked.
"These Draugr are armed with silver weapons, extensive knowledge in the Voice, and are much, much stronger than the ones we have faced" She replied.
I was stunned. "Like they were guarding this tomb to keep Vampires out."
She nodded.
"Several Draugr used a fire shout, and it engulfed Velkon, it scorched his entire body. Bits of his face and flesh fell off his body when I dragged him outside. The fire was so hot that it burned past the skin and muscle, exposing his bones."
I walked over to Velkon and checked his face, but I didn't see the significant damage that she described. His face looked like it hasn't seen combat at all, no scars from the fire.
"I do not see any burns on him" I said.
"I gave him a blood potion to start the healing process. After he regained consciousness, I gave him my remaining blood supply, with the number of potions he ingested he will have no scarring of any kind. Although when he came too, I had to knock him out when he found out I asked for your help." She said with a smile on her face. "When I was sure the Draugr were not going to leave the hallway, I carried him back down here.
"So, you need my help to defeat the Draugr and obtain immunity to the sun?" I asked. She nodded.
"Ok, how do you want to go about this?" I asked.
She had a befuddled look on her face. "You want to help, even though this could violate the alliance with the Dawnguard?" She asked quizzically.
I nodded.
"Sure, I trust you Serana, I know you will do what is right with this corpse. I can see some benefits if you obtain this body."
She looks away and tries to cover her face and I saw a tint of pink of her cheeks.
'Was she blushing?'
"How can you have that much faith in me?" she asked still not making eye contact with me.
"I will admit, the first time we met, I didn't trust you. I viewed all vampires as heartless bloodthirsty monsters that needed to be destroyed. However, you showed me that Vampires are victims, not monsters. You have a kind heart and you worry about others even when they don't give you enough credit." I said gesturing to Velkon. "You are not power hungry, you are not selfish, and you are not arrogant.
She looked up at me and smiled.
"Ugh," We heard. We both turned out attention to Velkon.
"Lady Serana, if you ever do that again I will personally." He began until he saw me. "And like a dog with a whistle, you come running."
"Wait a minute, I heard him say." Sniff Sniff. "You don't reek of dog."
"I cured my Lycanthropy several days ago." I told him. "Why do you care?"
"I could care less about your miserable excuse for a life." He seethed pushing past me and towards the crypt door only to lean against the wall next to the door.
"Where do you think you're going?" Serana asked.
"We need to defeat those Draugr to get to the tomb." He said taking deep breaths.
"No, you stay here; Kaius and I will take care of them." She said.
"The last thing I want is to be in this mongrel debt and have him destroy anything of importance" He sneered.
"You almost died, and it took all of my blood potions to make sure your burns would heal up." She explained.
"If you would have used you Vampire Lord power instead of running away, we would have killed the Draugr and get a hold of the Valak's body. And not having to call him for help." He yelled.
I grabbed him by his armor, picked him up and slammed him against the wall. He groaned in pain.
"Hey, she is the one who saved your sorry hide, and this is how you repay her? You whine and bicker like a child, while she is trying her hardest to make sure you don't do something stupid and get yourself killed. So, I suggest you shut your mouth, obey your Mistress, and let us take care of it."
He glares at me with those yellow eyes of his. "Fine, I will stay here, but you will come to get me when the fighting is done."
I dropped him.
"Let's go." I heard Serana call.
She opened the door and we went inside. The first thing I noticed was the bodies by the door. One had an ice spike through his chest and the other one was on its side.
"So Valak is this vampire's name?" I said as I drew my battle axe seeing the Draugr Lords kneeling in a straight line, their swords in the ground in front of them.
"Yes, he was a vampire from the first era and during the war between Nords and Elves. He single-handedly wiped hundreds of Elves and Nords and could use his powers at full strength during when the sun was." She said as she drew her sword.
Our walk turned into a charge. The Draugr Lords lifted their heads and stood up weapons ready.
FUS ROH DAH!
Both Serana and I were launched through the long hallway.
With a groan, I got to my feet, as well as Serana. Three of the Deathlords charged at us with their weapons drawn. With my battleaxe, I lunged forward As we got closer, I raised my axe over my head and swung it down, as it came down, the middle Draugr blocked it with its greatsword and the other one on the left swung his sword towards me. I moved back and the Draugr's sword hit nothing but air. The last one of the three swung his greatsword downward, I raised my axe to my block the blow. Then I saw several lightning bolts fly past me. I look and the other two Draugr were heading towards Serana.
I felt the strength from the Draugr push me and I was shoved against the wall against the wall. It brought it swords back and swung towards my head. I roll to the side, and I swung my axe and sliced the death lord into his stomach, When I tried to yank out the axe, it got stuck.
"YOL TOOR SHUL!" I shouted, the fire engulfing his upper body, but it didn't seem to faze it at all. It was still fighting, it was just now on fire. I was able to yank my axe out of his gut, brought up my axe up over my head, and sliced downwards. The force of my axe sliced it down from its shoulder. When the axe was halfway through its body, I felt the sword slice my chest piece?
When the axe hit the ground, the Draugr split in two and fell. I was pushed to the ground from its sword strike. I checked my chest piece, where I saw a minor fracture in the chest piece but nothing to worry about. I looked back to Serana and I saw one of the Deathlords on the floor and the other one bashing her in the face with its shield.
"Serana!" I yelled running to the Draugr. Serana regained her composure, grabbed his sword with her hand, and unleashed a torrent of sparks through the blade.
"YAA" I heard Serana yell and she unleashed even more lightning through the sword.
I felt an arrow pierce my shoulder. I moved out of the way towards the wall behind a statue. I saw Serana casting more lightning into Draugr that is started to shake uncontrollably. The ferocity of the lightning was searing its armor and skin. Then it turned into dust and fell. Seeing the Draugr drawing and firing more arrows, I ran and grabbed Serana and pushed her to the wall behind another statue. I stopped myself from shoving into Serana.
"Thanks," She said.
"No problem" I said leaning against the statue catching my breath. Serana was also exhausted look on her face. I looked back to the hallway and the three remaining Draugr were running towards us with their greatswords drawn.
"How are you feeling?" I asked quickly grabbing a stamina potion and drinking it.
"Just a little tired, just give me a minute." She replied as she reached in her pack and drank a magic potion. I peeked around the corner of the statue, seeing the Draugr charging closer.
"We don't have a minute." I said dropping the bottle and pulling the arrow out of my shoulder.
"FUS ROH DAH!" I shouted. The leader put up a ward while the other two were thrown back.
"You have got to be joking?' I said as I charged. We both swung our weapons and they clashed creating sparks. It hissed in annoyance. We swung our weapons downward and they hit the floor. One of her hands let go of her sword and backhands me with enough force for me to put me on my back. She charged and struck her greatsword downward. I brought up my arms into a cross position.
When the greatsword came down, I heard a crack when it collided with my wrists and it knocked the wind out of me. I grunted at the force of the blow. I looked past the Deathlord and saw the other Deathlords getting up and charging. I then heard the Deathlord laugh at me. She then let go of the sword with one hand and her hand glowed with frost magic. As she was about to cast her magic, a firebolt hit her in the face. It screamed and grabbed its face and got off me. I rolled to my battle axe and picked it up.
I saw Serana charged past me and began fighting one of the Deathlords. I dodged a swing from the leader.
"FUS ROH DAH!" I shouted. That sent the Leader down the hall past the other Deathlord that was running at me. It swung its greatsword to the right I dodged it and swung my battle axe, decapitating the Deathlord. I took a deep breath. I turn to see Serana side-stepping an upward strike from a Deathlord and moving swiftly and gracefully and shoved her sword through its back and unleashed a torrent of flames from her hands incinerating the Deathlord's skull.
When the corpse hit the floor, she turned around and let down her hood and took a deep breath and smiled at me. I stood there with my mouth a gaped. She moved with both ferocity and elegance when she fought. With the lighting in the hallway it seemed to make her eyes more golden than usual, she looked so exotic. I was so distracted by her, that It took me for what seemed like an eternity to realize her smile turned into a fearful look.
CRACK! I hit the wall with enough force to knock the wind out me and fell onto the floor, my helmet falling off as well. In a daze, I looked to my side seeing the Stalhrim armor was heavily fractured and I saw red liquid slowly leaking out of the armor. I look up to see the Leader. Her pale, lifeless blue eyes were staring into mine.
"A Dovahkiin, working with a Vampire? How the mighty have fallen. It will be a pleasure in killing you." It said in a demented voice that sent chills down my spine.
She brought the tip of her greatsword to my face with the intention to thrust it through me. Serana thrust her sword through the side of the Deathlord, moving her greatsword out of the way form my face. The blade instead grazed my right cheek, falling onto the ground. I got up and held my side. The Leader began casting flames at Serana, but she summoned a ward. I grabbed the greatsword and thrust it through her back. She turns to me and punches me in the throat, causing me to stagger. She grabs my throat and begins to squeeze.
I start to choke. Her leering at me, it somewhat reminded me of that Jester I helped with his mother. I lifted my hands to her hands, trying to pry her off me. I began to suffocate, my vision becoming darker with each passing second. I could still see her eyes.
SNIKT. Her grip considerably weakened. Then I saw something emerge from its head and pricked my nose. The sharp object retreated into the Leader's skull. Then she just fell to the ground and in its place stood Serana.
"That's two you owe me." She said as she smirked at me.
I rolled my eyes. "When was the 1st time?" I asked her trying to get precious air into my lungs.
"When you were on the ground with your arms crossed and blocking a greatsword." She replied.
"I had that under control, I just had to think about my next move." I retorted.
"Sure, you did." She mocked sheathing her sword.
I rolled my eyes and turned my attention at the female Deathlord and noticed something on it. Attached to it hip, was a Dragon claw made of bone.
"Hey, that's the claw we need for the door." She said grabbing the claw
I kneeled, gripping my side. It still hurt and wasn't bleeding profusely.
"Are you all right? You took a nasty swing." Serana said kneeling to my level.
"I am fine, it's not as worse as it looks." I assured her.
I concentrated on my magicika and summoned a healing spell. However, Serana put her hand over mine, the spell dispelling in the process.
"Don't exhaust yourself, let me heal you." She said gently. I did not protest. I watched her hands glow white and she began her process. I have been healed by priestesses such as Danica, but Serana had a soothing warmth to it. It felt peaceful. I stared at her face while she worked. The determined look she had while she concentrated, the way she occasionally bit her bottom lip, looked cute.
'Cute? Where did that come from?' I shook my head. Now was not the time to be thinking like this. Serana is a friend. You don't call friends cute.
I felt the warmth of the magic begin to fade. I frowned a little how I suddenly felt cold.
"Do you feel better?" she asked standing up and lending me her hand.
I took her hand and stood up. I felt no pain. I examined my side as well as my right bracer, both were fractured, the chest armor worse than the bracer. I would have to repair them when I get back to Whiterun.
"Yes, that is much better. I can barely tell if I've been attacked. Thank you" I said.
"Your welcome." She said with a gracious smile.
We walked past the bodies of the Draugr. When we got to the door, I saw a Forsworn Briarhart lying in pool blood. I watched Serana step over the body, looking at the patterns on the claw, and began to move the rings around. I turned my attention to the wall of stories with Valak. Seeing him effortlessly slaughter these battalions of Elves and Nords made me wonder what made him different from the typical vampire, how every weapon seemed to not even leave a scratch on him. The other hieroglyphs showed him latching on to the Elves and Nords and feasting or tearing and slicing through them. As I got to the end of the story, I saw him crossing swords with a woman with Greatsword. The woman was wearing a multi-horned helmet.
'That was you, wasn't it' I thought as looked back to the dead Deathlord Leader.
The last Hieroglyph showed the woman stabbing a dagger into Valak's chest with the Nords and Elves dispersing. The Nords were heading in the direction of the mountains with the Elves headed to the sea.
"I thought specifically said, come get me, when you were done?" An annoyed voice said behind us.
"Velkon, have you fully recovered?" Serana said turning the last ring.
"After helping myself to one of the bodies of thralls, yes I do feel rejuvenated. Now, don't open the door yet, I need to finish reading the rest of the hieroglyphs" He said.
Velkon walked past me and began writing down notes in his journal.
"I am impressed, you managed not to destroy everything in your little scuffle." He said condescendingly.
I kept silent and rolled my eyes. How Serana has been able to put up with him so long, I will never know.
I heard Serana put the claw in and twisted the lock. When the door opened, we saw an open chamber. In the middle of the chamber, was a pedestal surrounded by several braziers. One of the braziers had a purplish blue fire.
"This looks like the same kind of chamber I was buried in" Serana said. I nodded.
"We need to channel the flames from that brazier to the others." I said as I began walking toward the first brazier.
Push the brazier to its destination, I detected something. In the darkness, I saw something move, but I couldn't see the full form. Then I saw a man in black robes looking straight at Serana and I saw his hand glowing blue. He drew his hand back and launched an ice spike. Time seemed to slow down. I ran. The fastest I have ever run. I grabbed and held her into a protective grasp, and turned my back to the spike. I felt the spike hit the center of my back and shattered and it brought me to my knees with a firm push. I looked down at Serana. Her gold eyes had a fearful expression in them.
"AHHH!" I turned around and saw the mage being held on the ground with Velkon on him. He drew an elven mace from his hip, raised it and slammed down. I turn away. I look back to Serana who was still staring at me. I let her go and stood up. She firmly and quickly grabbed my shoulders and turned my back to her.
I saw Velkon, getting off the body with his mace drenched in blood. He turned to us and walked to the braziers and continued moving them.
"It looks like your armor absorbed the spike." She said examining my back.
"Now I only owe you 1." I joked trying to lighten the mood. She turns me around and I am met with a slap to the face.
"DON'T YOU EVER DO THAT AGAIN!" she screamed. I turn my head to her.
"I was not going to let you get hurt if I could stop it." I said trying to calm her down. That only seemed to make her angrier.
"It doesn't matter, what would have happened if the spike hit a little higher, your throat or your head? If you died, I don't know what I would do!" She yelled.
I remained silent.
"You are my best friend, if not my only friend! If you were to die, I would be devastated! Not only me but what about Lucia!? Would you have her grow up without another father?" She berated.
"You know Serana, my life will always be in danger. It is my job to protect those who need it. I have done the same my other friends as well as Lucia. If you were to die, I too would be devastated. I am not going to stand idly by and watch someone gets killed when there was something, I could have done to stop it." I said.
Taking several shaky breaths, she calmed down. I hugged her. I heard her breath hitch, and then it became more relaxed. I felt her arms wrap around my back.
We felt the ground and walls shake a bit. We both turned to see a large stone coffin rising from the ground.
"It's ok." I said. While we hugged, I noticed she smelt like nightshade and vanilla. She smelt nice. We let go and she looked at me.
"If you two are done, I would like some help pushing this lid open" Velkon said in an annoyed tone.
We let go of each other and helped him push the stone lid. Once the lid was on the ground, we examined the body. The body reminded me of a Draugr but, he his skin was still intact, mostly, he was extremely pale, you could see his bones through his skin. He wasn't decomposed at all. He was bald, had a short nose and had a sharp chin. He looked like he has only been buried for several months. I also noticed the dagger from the hieroglyphs in the middle of his chest.
"We will need this to cut off a hand since it was the only thing that could cut him." Velkon said.
He reached for the dagger and tried to pull but it wouldn't budge. He tried again but was unsuccessful.
"You want me to pull it out?" I asked.
"If you must." Velkon said and stepped back. I reached for the dagger and pulled, it wouldn't budge.
"grunt" I pulled again, and it moved a little. I pulled one more time and it came out. When it came out I looked at the blade. The blade was carved beautifully, the carving of a bear on the handle to the inscriptions on the side in the Nordic language. I look back to Valaks body. And I saw bright red eyes staring me. With lightning fast reflexes, he grabs my throat and sits up.
Heyo guys. Yes. I am over two months late. The Holidays were super busy for me, barely had any time to myself. I thought Ch. 3 was terrible, this chapter was much, much worse with grammatical errors, incoherent dialogue, and incomplete sentences everywhere. Leave a review if you guys enjoyed Ch. 4. I will try to have Ch. 5 up within the next few weeks. Disclaimer: I do not own anything that is or associated with Elder Scrolls, I am just a fan.