Fort Dawnguard, the Rift Hold
Skyrim, Nirn
The 13
th of Heartfire, 4E202

The party had ended at midnight, and Belinda's breath had been stolen at the gift her friends gave her: A ceiling like the night sky of Nirn. She had slept soundly, cuddled up to Karr, until after dawn. Then it was time to pack up and go. This time, instead of taking the longer north road to Riften or going around Helgan's ruins, they went through them. Karr saw glimpses of the past through various crystals that it had once been a bustling fort-town full of people with lives and families until Alduin burned it to the ground. Belinda and Ralof had survived. He saw how they did it, too. Working together with both Imperials and Stormcloaks to escape. There were no enemies that day, just people who had to survive and people who died. No one felt comfortable setting up camp in the ruins, so they pushed on until they reached the abandoned shack. A light rain followed them the next day, forcing them to put on cloaks. During this, a group of Imperials ambushed them, recognizing them as Stormcloak soldiers. Belinda rolled her eyes. She was not in the mood for this.

"Okay, you assholes only get one warning before all Hell breaks loose," she told them, hand going to the hilt of her sword. "Seriously, it's raining, we're heading to Fort Dawnguard, and an insanely ancient and powerful vampire has an Elder Scroll, so would you please just get the fuck out of our way and leave us be?" Her glare was hard.

"See! I told ya they're those Stormcloak commanders!" one of the soldiers pointed out, glaring. He pointed to Belinda. "And tha' un is Ulfric's second highest ranking officar." He drew his sword.

Belinda groaned, rolling her eyes. She drew her sword. "You just had to start shit…FUS-RO-DAH!" The Shout sent the soldier sailing several dozen feet into the air and then he landed with a splat. Everyone had watched and the soldiers looked to Belinda, who asked, "Anyone else?"

The remaining soldiers ran away back to their camp.

"Think that'll come back to bite us in the ass?" Dione asked.

"Eventually," Belinda answered, withdrawing her sword. She started walking, and the others followed.

Upon their arrival in Riften, they stabled the horses. The drizzle had eventually turned into a downpour, leaving the group soaked, muddy, and cold. The stable hand went to work caring for the horses while the party entered the city. The streets were empty, save for the local guards who huddled under water-proofed cloaks. Dione led them to her personal residence: Honeyside. They crowded into the living room, tracking mud inside. Dione started a fire in the fireplace and they all rested and relaxed. The skies were clear the next day and they traveled the rest of the way to Fort Dawnguard.

They entered the beautiful canyon and rode up the path. The fort was coming along nicely, and they were surprised to see a wagon, a horse, two cows, a coop with three chickens, and a dog. A family was settled around a fire, consisting of a tall Nord man, a Nord woman, two teen sons, and a little daughter brushing her doll's hair. The man and his sons were already working some of the land nearby while the woman brought water to the Dawnguard members training.

"Where the farmers come from?" Grete asked Celann when they reached the doors.

"Refugees wanting to hide from the vampires," the Breton answered. "They were quick to offer their services for protection. We can be self-sufficient thanks to them and not have to rely too heavily on income from jobs for food." He looked out over the canyon. "We could end up becoming a real community here. Natural defenses, removed from politics, large enough to have homes, and it's peaceful here."

"I couldn't agree more," Grete said, "but that means we have to be careful and watch everyone who comes in and out of here. A vampire or two could sneak in." She looked down the path to the entrance. "We could build a post there to check the people coming in and out."

"A good idea," Celann agreed. "In the meantime, Isran needs help tracking down some old partners of his." He then noticed Karr. "Who's he?" he asked.

"That's Karr Ivorring, an old friend of Belinda's," Grete answered.

Celann saw Belinda helping Karr dismount Queen Alfsigr and hand him his cane. She helped him inside the fort. "Is he blind?" he asked Grete.

"Yeah," Grete answered. "Don't ask me how or if he was born that way; I haven't a clue. Of course, we don't know each other well enough yet."

Isran was waiting for them. "We were attacked while you lot were gone," he pointed out, sharpening the blade of his axe. "So tell me you have some good news."

"Good news? That's good one! Yeah, no, we have fucking terrible news," Belinda reported. "The vampires were looking for another vampire who was hidden away in Dimhollow Crypt and, as it happens, she had an Elder Scroll on her and, based on meeting her father who came off as a major dickhead, he was more invested in the Elder Scroll than he was his own daughter. How's that for love, am I right?"

Isran's eye twitched. "They have an Elder Scroll…AND YOU DIDN'T BOTHER TO STOP THEM?!" he demanded loudly.

"Okay, first of all: The vampire we met was polite and courteous despite having not fed in likely a thousand years; so I apologize for having a moral compass pointing at 'do unto others as you would have them do unto you,'" Belinda pointed out. "Secondly: She politely asked if we could help her get home. Thirdly, despite our numbers and the fact that we have beaten incredible odds before, vampires are actually quite strong, especially in numbers greater than our own. So get the fuck over it before you have a fucking heart attack."

Isran glared at her.

"Yeah, I probably should have mentioned Belinda doesn't take shit from anyone," Grete muttered, "not even her elders."

"That's good," Isran growled, sitting back down in his chair. "It means she'll be a good hunter." He groaned, rubbing his temples. He and Belinda were going to butt heads. A lot. But the facts now were this: They needed help. He needed people. He thought for a moment, and knew what he needed: Gunmar and Sorine Jurard. "I need to find a couple of the people I've worked with over the years: There's Gunmar, a professional hunter who works with beasts, trolls in particular. Hates vampires almost as much as I do. He might be tricky to find, given Skyrim's size. Sorine Jurard might be easier to find. She's a Breton: Sharp as a whip and is interested in Dwemer weaponry. Last I heard, she was in the Reach, on the trail to the largest Dwemer ruins yet."

Except the largest Dwemer ruins aren't even in the Reach, Belinda thought.

"Easier to find my ass," Grete huffed. "The Reach alone is massive and there's plenty of Dwemer ruins there. Finding her could take weeks or even months that we don't have."

"Karr?" Belinda called.

Isran finally noticed the white-haired man standing in the shadows. How had he missed him? He saw everything there was to see, especially in Fort Dawnguard!

"A hunter and weapons researcher, correct?" Karr asked, reaching into his belt satchel.

"Sounds about right," Belinda answered.

Karr pulled out two crystals: A deep, forest-green emerald and a strange gem that looked like a ruby and a sapphire fused together or something. Belinda guided him to the window and opened it. Karr held up the emerald first, turning it until the light shone through and struck his eyes. The irises glowed and he saw the one called Gunmar, passing through Ivarrstead and talking with the local. The number 3 passed through the vision, which meant this would happen in three days. Next he repeated the process with the strange gem. In the next four days, she would lose her satchel beside the river in the Reach. She was new a small, Dwemer structure with a strange, gem-adorned chest.

"I need a map of the Reach and ink," he ordered. Belinda brought them and Karr dipped his forefinger into the inky before pressing it against the spot where Sorine would be. "Sorine will be in that area in four days after losing her satchel by the river that flows there." He pressed his inked finger just above Ivarrstead. "Gunmar will be in Ivarrstead in three days. Based on the movement of his lips, there's something about a bear he's been tracking for almost two weeks."

"Are you an Oracle?" Isran asked, watching Karr.

"Yes," Karr replied. "I see through gems and crystals of course."

"Interesting," Isran muttered. "But it looks like we know when and where Sorine and Gunmar will be. We just need to get there first."

"Don't rely on the visions too much," Karr warned, not turning from the window. "The future is always changing. It's easier to see the past as it happened and the present as it happens, and the further ahead I go, the more likely it is something will change. I don't like looking more than a week ahead in time."

"He really doesn't," Belinda confirmed, "but it will take us three days to get to where Sorine is and we'll need to have someone waiting in Ivarrstead for Gunmar. So, we'll split up into two groups." She paused. "Actually, make that three groups. Some of us will need to stay to help defend the fort from other attacks." She looked between her companions. "Astral, Ralof, and Grete, stay here and help prepare the fort for future attacks. Dione and Lucien, Karr and I will split from you outside Ivarrstead. Now, let's grab our horses and move out."


Ivarrstead, the Rift Hold
Skyrim, Nirn
The 16
th of Heartfire, 4E202

They rode to Riften, rested, rode hard to Ivarrstead, rested again, and then Belinda and Karr rode made for the Reach. This left Dione and Lucien to hang around Ivarrstead for a time. The former stuck to a shadowy corner away from prying eyes, and soon the latter rejoined her with meat pies for them both. Dione looked to Lucien.

"So, you're a telekinetic, right?" she asked, even though she had seen him successfully lift rocks ten times his weight.

"Correct," Lucien answered, and lapped at his bowl of wine.

"So why don't you always use your telekinesis solve problems?" Dione asked.

"Because it would take away the tension," Lucien answered, raising his head from his wine, "and what's the fun and intrigue in that? Dione, if people used magic to solve all their problems, existence would be excessively boring. I usually use my telekinesis to write and hold books. As you can imagine, it's actually impossible to hold these things without thumbs. Unlike solving puzzles and crushing the enemy, being an intellectual and not having thumbs is actually a very serious problem."

Dione truly had no response to that. Lucien was completely right. Without magic, he was a mighty warrior and a talented thief. With magic, he was overpowered and could easily fell every foe, except Alduin. If Lucien wanted to, he could have collapsed the ceiling on the vampires back in Dimhollow, but always held back.

The following conversations over the next couple days ranged from magical theory to different planes in the multiverse. Lucien even talked about his family. He had had a wife and three children. Those had been happy centuries of relaxation spent in the form of an Elven man. His wife died of old age and his children went on with life while Lucien returned to his true form and disappeared.

"Being a Planeswalker over 60 years ago could be quite lonely sometimes," he told Dione, "so it was important to be happy while we could."

"Have other Planeswalkers gotten together with other Planeswalkers?" Dione asked, feet kicked up onto her table and sipping from a bottle of Honningbrew.

"That's a silly question; of course," Lucien answered, eating a lavender dumpling.

The door to the inn swung open, attracting their attention. An average-sized Nord wearing furs and carrying two axes walked in. One axe was steel and the other was silver. Dione checked the description of Gunmar that Karr gave them. Long, light brown hair, pale, dark eyes, and large muscles. He went up for the bar and ordered some mead and stew. He and the innkeeper talked for a bit.

"That's him," Dione confirmed, shoving the scrap of parchment into a pouch on one of the belts crossing her chest. She downed the rest of her mead and stood. She took a seat at the bar beside Gunmar. "Are you Gunmar?" she asked him, keeping her voice low, but getting the Nord's attention.

"Whose asking?" he responded, tone guarded and body tense.

"Isran sent me," Dione explained.

"What does he want?" Gunmar asked.

"The vampire situation is getting out of hand; the Volkihar clan has procured an Elder Scroll," Dione answered.

"That…Is a very serious problem," Gunmar muttered. He looked around. "How did you find me though?" he asked suspiciously.

"I have a friend who is good at scrying," Dione answered. "Isran wants us to meet up at Fort Dawnguard. Says you're passionate about vampire hunting and good with the beasts of Skyrim. He's got an area in the fort set up for penning and training trolls."

"Never thought I'd see the day when Isran actually asked for help," Gunmar chuckled. "Well, I'll head there. But first I need to find this bear I've been tracking for the last two weeks. It attacked one of the miners in Dark Water Crossing and I've been chasing it through Eastmarch and the Rift since. Nearly killed another miner in Shor's Stone."

"We'll help you deal with the bear then," Dione assured.

"We?" Gunmar asked.

"My cat and I," Dione answered.

"HEY!" Lucien snapped, making Dione snicker.

"I assume it's a talking cat?" Gunmar asked.

"I am a lynx you morons!" Lucien snapped again.

The next morning, they went to small cave in the side of the Throat of the World. They was a large, angry brown bear outside it. It charged at them. Lucien charged in return, and then leapt onto the beast's back. He bit down on the bear's neck, making it stop and rear up. Dione and Gunmar drew their bows and arrows and fired at the bear until it fell to the ground dead. Lucien hopped off and hack and spit out the blood.

"Bear meat and blood is terrible," he spat.

"Not where you're desperate," Gunmar pointed out. He examined the bear corpse. "This beast is very healthy. It should yield plenty of supplies."

Dione went and removed the claws from the bear. "My mom knows alchemy," she pointed out.

After, they went into the cave where there was a two more large brown bears and a smaller black bear. That actually threw the three off a bit, but Lucien managed to distract the black bear while Dione and Gunmar fought the brown bears. Dione hid in the shadows and attacked on with bows and arrows. When the bear gave up on her and tried attacking Gunmar, she jumped the bear and drew an ebony dagger. She stabbed it repeatedly before it collapsed. Gunmar jumped out of the way of a swipe and brought his steel axe down on his bear's neck. They then helped Lucien dispatch the black bear. Gunmar knelt beside it.

"What is a black bear doing all the way up here in Skyrim?" he wondered.

"I know; they usually live in the Great Forest and Colovian Highlands in Cyrodiil," Dione agreed. She went work declawing the bears while Gunmar skinned and butchered them. That which couldn't be used was tossed out and away from Ivarrstead and the road to keep beast from straying too close. After their work was done, they unloaded some of the meat and fur to the locals for the coming winter and stayed the night.


The Reach Hold
Skyrim, Nirn
The 17
th of Heartfire, 4E202

She wasn't sure when it would be just the two of them again, so they had time to talk. They sat in the remains of an old farmhouse along the road between Whiterun and Rorikstead, taking a break from the ride to eat a light lunch. Their journey since Ivarrstead had been fast and uninterrupted, thanks in part to not having to slow down for others. Not to mention, Allie seldom needed a break and she was mostly kept to a canter.

"So, what next?" Belinda asked Karr, getting his attention.

"I assume we'll head back to Dawnguard with Sorine and-."

"I meant us." She fidgeted. "We had a student-teacher relationship since I was old enough to walk, then you disappeared for almost a decade, and now you're back and we've been acting like you were never gone and I know who I am and who she was to you and so I ask: Where are we going from here?" She and Karr looked one another in the eye, though he only saw her through the magic within her.

"Do you want it to go somewhere?" he asked, eyes unblinking.

"I…don't really know," Belinda answered, fidgeting still. "I'm still just a teenager and I guess you want me to do some more growing before anything happens and to make a relationship less creepy?"

"I think that would be wise," Karr agreed, tugging a crust of bread. "I still remember when you were a small child afraid of the dark. You weren't afraid of the night, just the dark."

"Night and Dark are different things," Belinda pointed out. "One doesn't make noise." She finished the taffy she was eating and stood. "Anyway, I think we should get going again."

They rode off. Karr had torn up the rest of his bread and scattered it about for birds. They chatted every so often, usually when she stopped to take a break from their journey. On the seventeenth of Heartfire, they arrived at Sorine Jurard's camp. They founded a tent, a large dapple grey horse, and an assortment of Dwemer scraps. The structure just came to Belinda's waist and there was the jeweled chest Dione had called a Convector. Yet, there were no Sorine.

"I see a horse, a tent, and research mats," Belinda told Karr. "What do you see?"

Karr opened his eyes to their surroundings. Flowers, crags, juniper trees, a flowing river, Dwemer magic, Forsworn across the river, a Frost Dragon flying overhead, the horse, and Sorine a little up the river. He conveyed Sorine's whereabouts to Belinda. "She's probably just fetching water," he added. "Probably best to just wait. Belinda nodded. She leaned against Allie and watched the dragon until Sorine returned.

"Who are you two?" she asked, setting down a bucket of water.

Belinda turned to her. "Belinda Scale, and this is my mentor Karr Ivorring," she answered.

Sorine nodded. "Now why are you here?"

"How did your partnership with Isran end?" Belinda retorted.

"Horribly; bastard said some hurtful things to me," Sorine responded. "Lemme guess: His stupid pride got him on the sharp end of a vampire's fangs?"

Belinda snorted. "Wow. Then there is a high chance you won't come with us to Fort Dawnguard?" she asked.

"He wants to see me?" Sorine was trying not to look all excited.

"Yeah; he needs your help," Belinda answered.

Sorine's eyes went wide. "Do tell."

"Well, the regional vampire clan, Volkihar, has been getting rather bitchy lately," Belinda explained. "What's worse, they've gotten ahold of an Elder Scroll."

"Oh, that is very bad," Sorine muttered.

"Yeah, and Vampires have managed to get into Dayspring Canyon where Fort Dawnguard is," Belinda added, now starting to shift weight from foot to foot.

"I'll go, but…"

"You need help with something?" Belinda asked. She had been waiting for it.

"I misplaced my satchel full of Dwemer gyros," Sorine answered. "I need them for research. Even just one whole, intact gyro will be enough."

"I can find the whole satchel," Karr pointed out, dismounting the horse. He removed one of his ears, one that was a chain with a crystal pendulum. He focused on Sorine's energy, drawing on it and letting it guide his path to the satchel. Belinda followed and soon picked up the satchel. They returned it to Sorine.

"Thank you," she told them. "I just need to wrap up a few things and pack up my gear."