Sybille POV:

Elisif is holding court when the Khajiit returns, bleeding and stumbling. She just has time to half kneel half fall to the floor, present Elisif with the skull, and let out a high-pitched squealing sound before she falls to the floor unconscious. Falk, Elisif, and I all have three completely different reactions. Falk lunges for the skull, Elisif rushes to the Khajiit, and I take a step back from the mercenary's blood. Her blood isn't particularly tasty, if anything it tastes like turned wine. But I haven't fed in a while, and blood is blood. Falk quickly walks off to get the remains sanctified, not caring about the injured woman on the palace floor. Elisif is shaking the mercenary, probably causing more damage than good. I hold in my sigh, walk over to Elisif, and tell her, "I suggest you stop, or you might give her a concussion.".

Elisif looks up at me with fear written all over her face, the Khajiit's gigantic skull in the queen's hands. Elisif swallows and starts to ask me, "Is she dying? Is she already dead?!". I shake my head to answer her questions. The Khajiit is unconscious, but I can hear that her heart is beating. Barely. I put my fingers to her neck, feeling the pulse weakly fight back. If she doesn't get medical attention she'll be dead in an hour. I yell, "Bolgeir! Help me lift her, we're taking her to my room.". The housecarl nods and heaves the Khajiit's legs up while I yank on her head. I whistle to get a guard's attention. The man quickly runs over and grabs the mercenary's middle, helping us heave the gigantic Khajiit into my room. When the woman's in my bed I dismiss the guard and Bolgeir.

I go to shut my door, but Elisif rushes in before I can close it. She quickly goes to the mercenary's side and puts two fingers on her neck, checking her pulse for herself. "Elisif, you need to leave.". I tell her as I look for my buckets, blood still dried on the inside. The queen shakes her head and tells me, "No, I want to help!". I suppose she could help, but I'll have to be careful. Thankfully, after the last scare with the mercenary, I rounded up all the prisoners with the same kind of blood with her. They're all in the same cell in the dungeons, ready for harvesting. I hand my queen the buckets and tell her, "Go get my two buckets of blood from our prisoners in cell two. Shove a cloth in the wound to save some of their blood for later.". I push a dagger in her free hand.

I can see the confusion in her eyes and her face grow grave, but she nods and quickly leaves. I sigh and make my way over to the mercenary, feeling along her bodies for clots. At least three clots are in her leg, but I need to sew up some of her cuts. After the sewing is done I prepare to remove her clots, but Elisif arrives before I can. The queen's dress in ruined, but she gladly hands me the two buckets. I thank her and point towards the door. "I want to-". The queen starts, but I shake my head and tell her, "Go, I don't want you to see this part.". Elisif looks upset, but leaves. Once she's gone I pour some of the blood in my mouth, pierce the mercenary's flesh, and squirt the blood into the Khajiit's body. The Khajiit mumbles, but doesn't fight.

The last time it was a messy and long process, I didn't want to turn the mercenary into a vampire. But now she's closer to death, and I can always treat her vampirism later. So, now I pierce her neck deeper and put more blood in at once. By the time the two buckets are empty the Khajiit is still on death's door, but almost off. I open my door, hand Elisif the buckets, and tell her to repeat the process. While the queen's gone I remove the three clots, then feel along the rest of her body. There aren't any more clots, but there's a strange, large lump right above the mercenary's left hip. It' about half the size of a loaf of bread, and from I can feel it's deep in her flesh. I consider ripping it out, but then Elisif is back and I decide it's too dangerous to do right now.

When Elisif's gone I once again fill the mercenary with blood, and the virus that could kill her. By the time I'm done with the first bucket the mercenary is fine, her body will naturally replenish the rest of her blood supply. I wipe my mouth, stick my head out the door, and tell Elisif, "She's fine, but-". I'm cut off by my queen shoving me out of the way and entering my room. "What happened to her?". Elisif asks as she attempts to wipe some of the blood from the mercenary's face, but with little success. "She apparently defeated Potema, but the queen didn't go down without a fight.". Elisif nods and studies the mercenary's face, blood staining her colorful fur. Elisif is still looking at her when I hear it. Her heat stops for a few seconds, then resumes beating. An early sign of vampirism. Damn.


The next morning the mercenary is awake, but barely. I bring her a simple meal of bread, cheese, carrots, well cooked meat, and undercooked human flesh. If she's normal she'll eat everything besides the undercooked flesh. I've seen her eat all of this food before (minus the human), but she'll naturally avoid the human meat. However, if she has the virus (like I suspect), then she'll only want the human flesh. The Sanguinare Vampiris virus will make her body crave iron, and the human meat has the most iron in it. She'll completely ignore all of the other food, and most likely ask me for more meat. If she does I'll bring it to her overdone and see her reaction. I also brought her three drinks. Water, mead, and wine. One glass has water, one holds mead, and the last holds blood.

I used a heavy perfume to mask the blood's scent and black dye to turn the liquid darker, so it resembles wine. I'm well aware the mercenary hates wine. When I enter the room Elisif wakes up. "Falk wants you.". I lie to her as I walk over to them, I don't want her to see the mercenary devour raw flesh like there's no tomorrow. Elisif nods and gets up, throwing one last glance at the mercenary. When she's done I shut the door, lock it, and hand her the food. I show her the three glasses. "This ones water.". I place it to her left. "This ones mead.". I put it on her left beside the water. "This ones wine.". I put it on her right. The mercenary nods and begins eating. At first she picks up the bread and a flicker of hope lights my stilled heart, then she throws it aside and rips into the human flesh.

My stomach sinks as she finishes the large helping in a few seconds, then pushes aside her plate. "Are you not going to eat anything else?". I ask the mercenary. The Khajiit looks shocked I'm talking to her, then sheepishly admits, "I don't think I can stomach that.". Fear grips my heart and I ask, "Would you like more meat?". The mercenary instantly begins nodding. I tell her, "I'll get you more, after you take a drink.". The Khajiit sighs, but picks up the glass of water. After she takes a sip a sour expression crosses her face, then she places the glass down and picks up the mead. The same reaction. Finally, she reaches for the 'wine'. She takes a small sip of the human blood, then begins chugging down what she thinks is wine. Her mind thinks its alcohol, but her body knows better.

After she's done drinking I smile and go to get her more food, but return with cooked beef and real wine. The Khajiit spits the meat out on the plate and barely swallows the wine. She places them aside and asks, "Is that the same thing?". I shake my head and tell her, "I'll feed you more later, but now get dressed.". The mercenary nods and gets up, rising with surprising ease with someone who was on death's door a few hours ago. As she dressed I think of a plan. Make a cure disease potion? No, I'm terrible at making healing potions. Go to that apothecary store? Did that old lady die? I think so, and I don't trust her assistant to make a healing potion. Drag the mercenary to the temple and make her pray? Does she follow the divines? I don't care, I have to try something.

The priestesses look at me strange when I enter, but I'm not sure if it's because they've never seen me before or because I'm dragging a mercenary behind me. When we reach the shrines I push her forward and tell her, "Chose your god.". She looks at all the statues, apparently unfamiliar with them. I sigh and tell her, "Akatosh, Arkay, Dibella, Julianos, Kynareth, Mara, Stendarr, and Zenithar.". I point to each of their shrines as I say their names. The mercenary asks what they're gods of, and I quickly tell her what each of them are ruler of. The mercenary keeps glancing at all of the shrines, but goes over to Akatosh's shrine when I snarl. She keeps staring at the shrine, so I come up behind her and force her to her knees. "Pray! Pray like your life depends on it!". I snarl.

She slowly reaches her hands out, grasps the shrine, and prays, "Dear Akatosh, stay out of my way.". I snarl and kick her in the side. "Pray! Actually pray!". The priestesses are talking behind my back, but I don't stop snarling until the Khajiit bows her head. I wait. And I wait. And I wait a little more. But no matter how long I wait I still smell the virus on her, and no white light wraps around the mercenary like it does any other devout. Eventually I sigh and yank the mercenary up, it's clear she either isn't trying or the mighty Akatosh doesn't listen to sellswords. As we walk back I hang my head is shame. The mercenary is still infected. What else can I do? What do I tell Elisif? As we get closer to the palace the fear of Elisif's reaction grows. But I'm more afraid for the Khajiit beside me. What will she do if she turns into a vampire? I have no idea.