Rebecca stepped into the icy chamber, the wind blowing her hair up all of a sudden as T'ariq jumped forward to take a mighty swing at the spider. It screeched in agony as he slashed one of its legs clean off, a thick, disgusting green liquid spewing from the hole where it had been. But the spider seemed only more enraged by this, and sent another leg crashing down on top of T'ariq, who went skidding across the floor with the force of the blow. Rebecca caught him as he slid towards her, taking his place while he recovered from the stun. She stepped forward cautiously, sword drawn and one hand out, fortunate that the spider was more than preoccupied with Felix. Remembering what T'ariq taught her, Rebecca closed her eyes for a split second to conjure up that fiery energy that had been waiting inside of her. She opened up her eyes at the last minute, glinting green with determination. And, to her relief, that tickling sensation returned, blasting out from her hand to burn the spider's flank before she cut it off, feeling the recoil setting in.
Rebecca stepped back to perch on a piece of rubble until her head stopped tipping from side to side. But to her horror, just as that moment, Felix had decided to turn towards her, concern in his eyes as she wobbled in her seat, and the spider rose up, pincers bared and legs raised. It gave a ferocious scream just as Rebecca shouted a warning, and lunged down towards the boy. He turned just quickly enough to watch as the spider slipped on a piece of stone, and fell with a rumble onto the ground beside him, missing his swing by inches. Taking the shot that had been handed to him on a silver platter, Felix plunged both swords into the spider's ugly head. It gave one last squeal before laying motionless before him, a picturesque finish as he leant on one blade and turned back to the other two.
With that same cheeky glint in his eye, Rebecca saw his gloat coming before he even opened his mouth. "What can I say?" he shrugged, laughing as he yanked his swords up and out of the spider, now covered with its icky, pungent blood. "I'm lucky."
Rebecca helped T'ariq to his feet and raised an eyebrow as she passed him grimacing at the green slime coating his weapons.
"Doesn't look so lucky to me." she shrugged. He shot her an unamused glare as he wiped them on a nearby thicket of cobwebs.
Rebecca started as a familiar voice sounded from the doorway in front of them, wrapped in amongst the webs – Arvel the Swift. Rebecca gave a heavy sigh as she approached him, wishing she didn't know this game so well.
"You, over there! You did it. You killed it!" he gasped. "Now cut me down before anything else shows up." he demanded, struggling against the webs. T'ariq glanced at Rebecca for confirmation.
"The claw first, Arvel." Rebecca held a hand out expectantly. The man blinked, stunned into silence as he momentarily paused his wriggling.
"Well I can't give you anything like this, can I?" he yelled, appearing to descend into panic as he began frantically attempting to wiggle himself free again.
"Alright, alright." Rebecca stepped forward to cut him out of the webs, T'ariq following her lead. Her mind whirred to life with different strategies, unsure of how to proceed. Could she justify killing him to the others as soon as they got him down? Hell, forget the others, she thought. Can I justify it to myself? Killing a spider here and there was not the same as killing a real person. She wasn't sure that she could do it.
Rebecca held her hand out for the claw, and felt her heart soar in relief as she saw him reaching for his pocket. He placed something in her hand, but what, she couldn't tell – it certainly wasn't big enough to be the claw.
In the space of a second, Arvel had yanked on her hand and twisted her around to face T'ariq and Felix, now both drawn and watching the two with concern, their eyes flitting back and forth. Rebecca felt her breath stop altogether as the familiar cold edge of a knife was pressed against her neck, Arvel the Swift chuckling darkly in her ear. The knife glinted in the cold light of the Barrow, the hand that held it shaking and pale. Rebecca felt the blade draw blood, pricking at her skin with every shudder, until a single, thick drop of crimson rolled down her neck. She cursed herself for having the humanity to leave Arvel alive, even for a moment.
"Now put the weapons down, fellas, and we won't have any trouble." Arvel demanded, his voice as weak as his grip. He seemed panicky, or even mad, his breathing heavy and erratic on her ear. T'ariq and Felix reluctantly did as he told them, placing their blades on the ground in front of them. Rebecca racked her brains for a tactic, anything that would distract him or enable her to bargain her way out.
"We'll leave Arvel, we'll walk right out. Just let me go." she promised. But Arvel just laughed, giving a high-pitched cackle that echoed around the stone walls.
"You think I believe that?" Rebecca flinched as he pressed the knife harder on her throat. This is becoming a recurring theme, she thought to herself.
An idea suddenly flashed into Rebecca's head. She shot T'ariq a warning glance, and saw him nod ever-so-slightly in response.
"Now I'm gonna count to three, and you two will be down the hall, you hear me?" Arvel yelled, the fear in his voice still very much palpable. Felix and T'ariq watched him closely with steady gazes, and began to turn away. Rebecca readied herself, closing her eyes and balling up her energy at her finger tips.
"One-"
Before he could count again Rebecca turned her palms inward and pressed them hard into his hip bones. The smell of burning flesh filled the chamber as he let out a bloodcurdling scream and pulled his hands away from her neck, giving her room to duck and roll out of his way. The next second, his wail was cut short by the spike of an ice shard piercing his heart. Arvel fell to his knees, his eyes still wide open and frozen in terror. He let out one final gasp, his breath white as the magic spread across his chest.
Rebecca stood to her feet, her eyes moving down to the two blackened patches of skin at his hips where her hands had burnt past his clothing. She had to swallow an urge to vomit as she noticed the white of bone poking through the seared flesh.
T'ariq shook off the ice magic that still crackled between his claws. Rebecca nodded to him. "Thank you."
T'ariq pointed to her own hands, which were still smoking. "Well done," he smiled at her. "This was very quick thinking."
Rebecca shook her head, not wishing to be commended for anyone's death, innocent or otherwise. She moved over to Arvel's body, where Felix was rummaging through the dead man's pockets. He pulled a large golden claw out from a satchel, holding it up so that it sparkled in the light.
"What in the Nine is this?" he whispered, in awe of the contraption. Rebecca chuckled and took it from him, surprised at the weight of it in her grasp.
"This," she held it out for T'ariq to look at. His eyes lit up in understanding. "Is the Golden Claw. And we're not keeping it." she added, snatching it back as Felix reached out with eager hands towards it. "It belongs to Lucan & Camilla Valerius."
They finally entered the real start of the Barrow, their footsteps echoing against the ancient stone walls. The air felt mustier, and thicker the further down they ventured, dust swirling in the torchlight around them. Felix didn't miss a beat, checking every urn they passed for gems or septims and grinning at his finds. But Rebecca's own mindset was less than optimistic as they proceeded through the crypt. Arvel's death had shaken her a little, and the prospect of draugr up ahead was no less comforting.
She let T'ariq take the lead as they wandered into their first burial chamber, keeping an eager eye out for any movement among the dead lining the walls.
"The ones with armour will attack," she told him, pointing at one sleeping Nord to their right. "And look out for pressure plates on the floor." she added, eyeing the swinging wall trap lying in wait ahead of them.
To her relief, however, the draugr posed little threat to the three of them. They cut them down before they had ever had time to rise, leaving their wrinkled bodies slumped against the alters. Rebecca even managed to take a few down herself, launching balls of fire at those closest and watching their icey blue eyes fade to black as they fell.
"Not bad, princess," Felix puffed, sheathing his swords as the last of them crumpled with a stab to the knee. Rebecca managed a weak smile, the spinning in her head subsiding as her magicka began to replenish itself.
The next room they encountered had a tunnel of swinging blades, providing a pause of barely half a second for a brave soul to sprint through.
"There's a chain on the other side that will stop them." she told T'ariq, looking up at him with pleading eyes. He nodded in understanding, stepping up towards the entrance and watching for a break in their swings.
"I've got this!"
Felix came hurtling out from behind him, ducking and rolling through in one swift motion. The scream died in Rebecca's throat, her eyes widening in shock as Felix stood, unharmed on the other side, and pulled the heavy metal chain down. The axes froze at the sides, allowing them clear access. T'ariq hissed in disdain as Rebecca stormed through the tunnel to give Felix a mighty whack on the shoulder.
"Ow!" he winced. "What was that for?"
"You bloody idiot!" she screeched. "You could've got yourself killed!"
Felix ducked as a flurry of blows came flying at his head. But to Rebecca's fury, that familiar smirk spread across his face and he tipped back his head to laugh aloud. She hit him harder.
"OK, OK!" he put his hands up in submission. Rebecca refrained from throwing any more punches, glaring at him with eyes that burned like emerald fire. Felix leaned down towards her and winked. "Just because you fancy me."
Rebecca gave a roar and raised her hand again. But this time, it was caught in midair by a furry set of claws, gripping her wrist tightly. She turned to see T'ariq behind her, his right ear twitching in irritation.
"If these two could stop bickering like children, we might actually see the end of this filthy dungeon!" he snapped. Felix and Rebecca stood rooted to the spot, taken aback by the hostility in his voice. He shot daggers at the two of them before moving ahead, his tail lashing from side to side in fury. Felix gave a quiet snort before Rebecca sent one last smack flying to the back of his head for good measure.
They trudged through the next few rooms, slaughtering draugr left and right. The tunnels and halls sloped further and further downwards, until finally, deep underground, they emerged in a chamber with carvings all along the walls. They depicted dragon priests and Nordic warriors of old, their ancient scenes leading along the hall to one huge, carved door, with three paler rings around a scratched keyhole.
Rebecca took the lead as she walked up to the door, claw in hand."We're done after this last room." she told the other two.
The code was the same as ever, bear on top, moth in the middle and owl on the bottom. Rebecca lined the carvings on the door up perfectly, and inserted the claw into the indents in front of her, twisting it to the left ever so slightly until the grinding of stone from deep within her announced her success. Slowly, and deafeningly, the stone slab in front of them sunk down into the ground, screeching against the walls and bringing dust and dirt showering down atop them from the ceiling.
"Well, that was easy!" Felix remarked, taking the first step into the huge chamber that awaited them beyond. But Rebecca was more hesitant. Despite the stoic beauty of the spacious cavern, its every wall lined with moss and blankets of ivy, she knew what lay ahead. Lying in wait at the other end of the cavern, was not only a deadly Draugr Overlord, but also, in a sense, her destiny. Rebecca could hear the chanting already, barely a whisper from where she stood, calling her from Sovngarde and pulling her toward her fate. She squeezed her eyes tight shut as if to block out the noise. But it did her no good.
Actively avoiding the word of power, Rebecca stepped into the room and began searching for a chest around the side of the stone wall, while to her dismay, T'ariq and Felix became preoccupied with what was written within.
"Hey, Rebecca, come see this!" Felix called, his voice echoing off the stone slab. She shook her head fervently, the chanting of ancient Nordic warriors now almost deafening in her ears as she rummaged through the piles of loot.
"Nope, don't want to." she said, fully aware that she was only delaying the inevitable. "Hey, can you two see the Dragonstone? It's a slab of stone with carvings on it, about this big?" she held up her hands in the shape of the plate. Felix and T'ariq scoured the area around them, even tapping on the coffin (and giving Rebecca a heart attack), but there was no stone to be found.
"Oh for God's sake," she moaned, glancing at the word of power, now glowing a soft blue against the smooth stone wall. The stone must have been on the body of the Draugr that could only be triggered by learning the word of power. Because of course it was.
Felix looked at her, a curious gleam sparking in his warm brown eyes.
"What's wrong?" he asked, stepping towards her. Rebecca screwed up her face, desperately wanting to do anything other than turn around and read that stupid word. She knew that once she had absorbed this first power, there was no turning back. She would be launched onto a path that she could not escape, the path that Tom had warned her about.
"Rebecca?" T'ariq's raspy growl sounded from her left, filled with the same concern that Felix had voiced. But she ignored them both, finding the courage from deep within her to turn on her heels and step toward the chanting voices.
"Keep an eye on that." she glanced over her shoulder at the coffin behind them, resisting one last surge of temptation to simply turn and flee.
Moving slowly forwards, Rebecca now gave into the magnetic force pulling her to the wall. The carvings along its stony sides seemed to sing about her ears, humming with the voices of those with the dragon blood who had come before her.
She reached a hand up to trace the markings, her fingers running along the indents in the ancient stone. Her eyes were focused so intensely on the word of power, that they began to sting as her heartbeat pumped in her ears. She heard T'ariq call out to her, but she couldn't make out his words. He sounded far away, as if in another world. Her mind was trained solely on the carvings in front of her, sharp and twisted as though inscribed by the very claws of a dragon. The light emitting from the word grew brighter and brighter, until she felt it would blind her if she didn't close her eyes. But the word burned through, scorching the characters on the inside of her eyelids as a rushing of wind replaced the chanting, and her mind was filled with a single thought;
Fus
And then suddenly she was free. The wind ran through her and the pounding in her head began to slow. Bizarrely, she felt stronger, as though she had gained an understanding of something far deeper than herself.
The lid of the coffin popping open was what brought her back to reality, snapping her into the present and bringing flames to the tips of her fingers on instinct. The Draugr Overlord clambered out, in all his armoured glory, snarling and spitting at them as he lowered an ancient waraxe in his hands, his feet shoulder-width apart and planted firmly on the stone. He was ready for battle. But for once, so was Rebecca.
She gave a ferocious roar as her hands turned outward of their own accord, scorching him with red-hot flames that engulfed his withered skin and sent him to his knees, screeching as if in agony. Without pausing for breath, Rebecca drew her sword and lifted it high above her head, her mind strangely clear and in tune with every muscle in her body. With all the might she could muster, she sent it slicing through the air towards the creature, meeting its mettle with an ear-splitting clang that rang out across the cavern. The Draugr was much stronger than her, and pushed back against her blade with undeniable strength. It forced the girl back far enough to get to its feet, suddenly towering above her, axe raised, like the henchman of death himself.
Rebecca ducked nimbly out of the way, thankful for her light armour that allowed her to roll on her the ground without hinderance. The waraxe crashed down on the space she'd occupied a heartbeat before, sending up sparks from the force behind it. Seizing her opportunity, Rebecca lunged forwards on her knees and sliced at its leg, forcing it down to her level and giving her a chance to get back on her feet. Stunning the monster again with a blast of flames to the side of its skull, Rebecca found herself delivering the final blow to its head with a crack as though there were nothing more natural in the world. That haunting blue light in its eyes faded, until there was nothing left but the dark pits of a dead man, devoid of life.
Panting, the sound finally returned to Rebecca's ears with a sudden whoosh, and the force of ancient instinct that had consumed her disappeared. Yanking her sword from where it was lodged in the draugr's head, Rebecca leaned over the body to find the Dragonstone. She passed it off to T'ariq to hold. Her arms were far too tired from all of the swinging and singeing today, and she was now overcome with exhaustion. When T'ariq didn't immediately relieve her of the stone, Rebecca turned around to face her companions expectantly, looking up to find them both staring at her in stunned silence.
Rebecca couldn't help but let out a breathy laugh. "You two gonna stand there all day?"
Felix snorted and shook himself back to the present, taking the stone from her and placing it in his sling bag.
"You are just full of surprises."
