"There," the enthralled Dawnguard says, pointing at the map.
"Mor Khazgur?" What the hell is that?
"It's an orc stronghold," he says. "The orcs that lived there are all dead. Some kind of disease I think. The stronghold should be empty now."
"Or held by bandits," dad suggests.
"I can handle bandits," Serana says, confident.
"Mor Khazgur it is then."
"And what do we do with him?" mom asks, nodding towards the thrall.
"Good question," Serana says. "We can't leave him here."
"How about we just take him with us?" dad suggests.
"I'm not taking that bastard with me. Besides, we shouldn't draw too much attention. The smaller our group, the better."
"Just send him to Solitude then. Maybe he can convince the others you are dead."
"And the others died in the fight? I don't know if they'll believe that without a body, but it's worth a shot," Serana says.
"It's settled then."
Still, I'm not sure about all this. I'm in Tamriel for one day and I'm already set on a quest to travel to an orc stronghold and find a vampire-assassin from the Dark Brotherhood who might assist us in fighting a bunch of vampire hunters.
I can tell that dad isn't comfortable either.
"Dawn," he says. "Can we talk? Privately?"
"Uhm. Sure." I knew something was wrong.
I follow him to the right and down a flight of stairs.
There are large wooden caskets in this room, along with heavy tables. In the past, a coffin was standing against the wall, but it's been smashed to pieces.
Another staircase leads further down, probably to the dungeons where they lock up 'feeding thralls'.
"We're not coming with you," dad starts.
"Wait, what?"
"We're not coming with you to Mor Khazgur."
"Where are you going then?" I have my suspicions.
"The College of Winterhold."
"But, the Dawnguard-"
"Is not our problem."
The annoying part is that he is right. There is no reason to get involved into a pointless war we have absolutely no chance of winning.
"Look. I wanna help her."
"You can't win against them."
"I know that. But if Serana remains alone she will die. The least I can do is help her find this 'Babette'. If she still wants to fight a doomed battle after that, it's up to her. I'll join you at the College after we find Babette."
Dad nods. "You know why we are going to the College, don't you?"
"Of course. But I'm getting a feeling the Dawnguard is involved in what we found."
"The missing arcane enchanter."
"Enchanters. There were soul gems in Serana's room and a suspicious looking empty spot next to it. I believe I saw marks in the dust. I found something similar at the lab left of the hall. I'm suspecting Winterhold won't have enchanters either. But the Dark Brotherhood sanctuary is a lot harder to breach."
Dad nods once again. "The College is strong, but not almighty. The Dawnguard may have infiltrated. If your suspicion is correct, Skyrim is in great danger. Especially if the Last Dragonborn is dead."
"Which is why we need to stop them. We're the only ones that can."
"Keep Serana save. We might need her later."
I nod.
We return to the great hall.
I explain the situation to Serana. She doesn't seem to mind that it's just the two of us, but I can tell she's very suspicious about all this. Still, this is not our war and she can't make any demands from us.
"I suggest we don't stick around too long," Serana says. "Let's put on some normal clothes and gather whatever supplies we can."
"Where do I find normal clothes in here? Dressing in vampire armor sounds like a terrible idea."
"Follow me," Serana says. She leads me back to the room I talked with dad. But now, she goes a bit further. Instead of walking down to the empty pens, she goes left to a wardrobe. She opens it and takes out a normal light grey tunic and a black pair of pants.
"Try this on."
I accept the clothes and start removing the heavy armor.
It would have come in handy in a fight, but the remaining Dawnguard didn't put up much resistance and dad had already dealt with them. Actually travelling in such armor would be impractical and way too suspicious.
The tunic fits, more or less.
Serana has dressed in a similar fashion: a simple dress in white and brown falling to her knees, fastened with a simple belt and laced up front.
"I feel weird without my hood," she says.
"We're still way too suspicious. Your eyes draw too much attention. And that elven dagger is a bit...too suspicious."
"You're the one to talk. A Dawnguard crossbow and an ancient nord sword. How exactly are you going to explain that? You're just a traveller, who has stolen a sword from the draugr and found a crossbow on a dead Dawnguard?"
"I need some weapon, don't I?"
"Let's try something else. We don't look like normal travellers at all. We'll need a better disguise."
"What else have you got?"
"I think I've got an idea."
She walks back to the hall. Then, she goes to the stairs situated left from the throne.
From there, you can go left to another room, right to the balcony above the throne and straight forward up another flight of stairs. There are stairs leading left forward as well, but a large iron gate blocks them.
"That's the cathedral," Serana says. "We shouldn't go there. Bad memories."
Hm. Most likely Harkon was killed there.
She takes the stairs in front of us and opens a door.
The room we arrive in is kinda creepy.
It has a throne-like chair by the fire along with some regular chairs, but that is about as cozy at it gets.
Left of the door is a giant cage big enough to put a human in. In the other corner was a torture rack with dried up blood beneath it. I say 'was', because now only splinters remain. It's still visible what it once was though.
Serana turns right, to a display case between two wardrobes.
"Here you go," she says, taking out something fuzzy and black.
"Is this a wolf pelt?"
"A werewolf pelt to be precise."
"That doesn't sound suspicious at all."
"Hold on to that thought."
She goes further into the room and up some stairs.
When she returns, she carries a dagger. A weird half curved thing. It's bronze colored with streaks of green, as if it's made of copper or something.
"A dragon priest dagger," Serana explains.
"I thought we were going for less suspicious?"
"Don't fool yourself. We're fighters, so we might as well look like it."
"Mercenaries."
She smiles. "Indeed. Let's find some fancy things. Mercenaries like to show off."
As if showcasing his power, Harkon decorated his room with all kinds of rare items.
"Why didn't the Dawnguard take any of this?" I ask, holding up a bonehawk amulet. Surely this thing is worth a lot.
"Beats me. Maybe they were afraid the items were cursed or something."
"Are they?"
"Maybe."
Let's not go down that route. "But they did take the rare alchemy ingredients and the arcane enchanters?"
"And the Bloodstone Chalices, the Rings of Blood Magic and the Amulets of Night Power. All very powerful artefacts which boost a vampire's powers."
"Makes sense they secured those."
"Indeed. If we hope to stand any chance of winning we'll need those."
It takes me a full minute before I realize the implications of the word 'we'.
I sigh softly. What am I getting myself into?