The Heart of a Daedra

By The Grey Knight

Chapter 8:

The sun was setting behind them as the exhausted troupe finally reached Windhelm stables. As it was late, only Ulundil, the proprietor of Windhelm stables was outside, checking on his horses one last time before returning to his house. Although Sjern did not know him as well as he knew others, Ulundil was very friendly towards him, often asking him about his man adventures whenever he managed to catch Sjern walking in. This time however he completely blanked Sjern as he walked by. Although he thought it was odd, Sjern shrugged it off for now, too tired to fret over such a paltry matter. As they approached the main gate, which would usually have opened by now, Sjern heard the rough voice of the gateman shout down.

"Halt! Come no closer to the gate, Dragonborn, we will not stand for your kind inside these walls." Sjern looked at each of his companions in turn. 'As if they know why I'm not allowed in.' He thought, looking back up at the little hut where the gateman resided.

"On whose authority?" Sjern demanded, really not in the mood for anything like what was happening. Then a second voice rang out, a raspy and more feminine voice, much like Shadowfang's.

"On my authority Dragonborn." It said in a raised voice.

"And who might I be speaking to?" Sjern replied, stepping one step closer to the gate. He heard the owner of the voice laugh. Just as he was about to ask who the speaker was he felt Shadowfang's hand on his shoulder, stopping him. She leaned in close and whispered,

"I think I have an idea of who that may be Dragonborn. Allow me to talk to her." Sjern simply nodded and took a few steps back. He could hear the gateman saying something to the unknown speaker in a hushed tone. Then Shadowfang spoke.

"Hello sister." She said her voice saddening. "It has been a while."

Nothing was said for a short while after Shadowfang spoke. Then, more hushed voices, multiple hurried footsteps and finally, the gates of Windhelm swung open.

Sjern counted nearly two dozen warriors in simple variations of armour standing behind the gate. Some wore leather, others wore scaled. Only three of the warriors wore Orcish armour and wielded Orcish greatswords. In the centre of the crowd stood a Khajiit female with light golden fur which almost reminded Sjern of the coat of a Sabre Cat, only a lot cleaner and better groomed. She wore the very same vampire royalty armour that Lord Harkon had worn when not in his Vampire Lord form, steel plate gauntlets, boots made from Stalhrim and, resting on her head as if she were nobility, was a gold and emerald circlet. She had no weapons sheathed at her side, nor any on her back. Yet it was not the armour of Harkon or the Stalhrim boots that Sjern honed in on, but her eyes. He had often heard of people or vampires having red eyes but Sjern had never seen anyone or anything with eyes quite like hers. They were a bright red and shaped like two ovals. What separated them from any other set of red eyes Sjern had previously seen were the slits. They were a pale silver colour and tilted slightly to the left. If it was not for the slits she would have looked harmless, but Sjern was wary of her. She looked evil. Not in the same way that Alduin or Harkon had, but she had an aura of darkness around her and her eyes looked as if she would be willing to gouge out your eyes and then laugh about it later. Once they landed on Shadowfang however, they narrowed even more, she was clearly displeased at the Khajiit warriors presence.

"What are you doing here, filth!" She spat. Sjern expected Shadowfang to have a snappy retort, or at least insult back but instead, she simply sighed.

"You know I was exiled sister." She said weakly. "Skyrim is my new home now." Sjern was shocked. Only a short while ago was this female Khajiit screaming at the top of her lungs happy as she could be, now she sounded as if someone had quite literally drained her of all positive emotion. He could almost feel the tension between the two.

"Your new home?" The golden furred Khajiit jeered, "You don't have a home anywhere, sister! You betrayed our great leader, you brought shame to the name of our family and worst of all you didn't even think to apologise to us for what you had done!" Shadowfang flinched, as if the other Khajiit had struck her from where she was standing. Sjern thought he saw tears on her face.

"What would you have had me do? I loved another! Do you know how difficult it is to try and force yourself to love another when you are already in love?" Shadowfang's voice was slowly rising as she spoke. "I guess you wouldn't would you? You always were the perfect little whore of the tribe!" She practically screamed the last bit at her sister who snarled right back. There was a prolonged silence as no one dared move. Then both females rushed simultaneously at each other, the one with the golden fur conjuring up a sword and Shadowfang drawing the glass blade Chillrend from its sheath. They met in midair, sparks flying as the two blades clashed. None of the warriors who had stood behind Shadowfang's sister dared move, afraid of getting caught in the rapid exchange of blows between the two Khajiit. It was almost as if it was rehearsed between the two as neither seemed able to gain any leeway. Shadowfang would swing her sword at her sister's head, who would parry and then stab back quicker than she should have been able to, causing Shadowfang to strafe to the side to avoid being skewered. The attacks were so quick and ferocious that Sjern was surprised that neither had lost a limb as of yet. He turned to look at the group of warriors. Many had fear in their eyes but some, such as the ones wearing the Orcish armour, looked determined. They had their greatswords in their hands and Sjern knew they were simply waiting for a chance to pounce on Shadowfang.

"Can't have that now, can we?" Sjern muttered to himself, slowly drawing NightHowl and walking towards the men in the Orcish armour. Only one of them saw him before he had thrust NightHowl through his chest, severely injuring him. With one down, Sjern quickly removed his sword from the injured man, spun around the second and cleaved his head from his shoulders. Just as he turned to strike the third down he was blinded by a flash of silver light. He quickly shielded his eyes and turned away, hoping the man was similarly blinded. Once the blindness had worn off he could see that his intended target had fared much worse then him as he had Infernus' arm, which was engulfed in the silver flame once again, protruding from his chest. He didn't even have time to scream as Infernus yanked his arm out from his chest and he disintegrated.

"Go help Shadowfang!" Infernus yelled at him, flicking his wrist and becoming swallowed by the flames once again before turning to face the remaining warriors. Sjern stole a quick glance over to where Serana should have been but instead saw that she was only a few places behind him, draining the life out of one warrior while gutting another with her Elven dagger. She saw him looking at her and winked, before leaping over two men's heads and quickly dispatching them with her dagger. Sjern looked around, Infernus and Serana were tearing through the warriors at an alarming pace. Nords, Argonians, Bretons and High Elves alike fell to Infernus' silver flames and Serana's combo of her Drain Health spell and her Elven dagger. Then Sjern looked over to where the two Khajiit sisters were fighting and saw that Shadowfang was not faring too well. Her sister was pushing her back with each swing of her conjured sword until she eventually disarmed Shadowfang. Sjern saw a much smaller flash of black and blue light in the golden Khajiit's left hand as she conjured a dagger which she swiped at Shadowfang with, who barely ducked in time, rolling away from her sister. Just as Sjern was about to rush the armed Khajiit, he saw Shadowfang begin to tremble. The trembling lasted barely five seconds as he watched the Khajiit's arms, legs and head grow in size. Her fur grew slightly lighter and bristles stood up on her back. As she changed, she removed her armour quickly to avoid breaking it in her new form and it wasn't until she was down to her undergarments that she allowed herself to fully transform. Sjern was absolutely shocked. 'She's a damn werewolf too?' He thought, wondering just how little he knew of this female. He quickly noticed however, that he wasn't completely right. Shadowfang's appearance more resembled that of a bipedal Sabre Cat than a werewolf. Nevertheless it was a frightening sight to see a weakened and disarmed Khajiit fully transform to a hulking beast capable of tearing a man in two. He half expected the now smaller Khajiit to back down instantly. Instead, (and this really worried him) he saw her chuckle. She dispelled her two blades quickly and spread her arms wide.

"You always were the more feral type, weren't you sister?" She said mockingly as she rose about three inches off the ground. Sjern did not immediately see what was happening as he heard the rush of footsteps behind him and turned to find one of the few remaining warriors swing at him. He easily sidestepped and struck the High Elf in the side of the head with the pommel of his sword. Having knocked the Elf to the ground he quickly sliced down, severing his head from his shoulders and causing the stump at the top of his body to start spouting blood. Before he could check on Shadowfang again, one more attacker rushed at him. Sjern sighed heavily. He stepped forward one and released the power of his Thu'um once again.

"FUS RO DAH!" He Shouted, launching the Breton, as well as several small rocks on the ground, through the air. Sjern decided that he would be a lot better off helping Serana and Infernus dispatch the final five warriors before returning to Shadowfang's fight.

He strode towards two Nords, who were standing side by side and tossed NightHowl at one of them. The enchanted blade flew through the air and buried itself in the Nord on the left's chest, leaving him clawing the air in pain. As soon as he had thrown NightHowl, Sjern had broken into a run and tackled the second Nord just after he had watched his ally die beside him. Sjern looked down on the Nord in dismay, watching as he tried to free his sword arm, which Sjern had his knee on preventing him from swinging.

"Such a waste of a young life." He said sadly, as he covered the young Nord's mouth and nose with his hand, stopping him from breathing. A few seconds later, the Nord went limp as he lost the battle for his life against a much stronger and more experienced fighter. Sjern got to his knees, retrieved NightHowl and looked over at the Sabre Cat and its sister. Or what was its sister. Where the golden furred Khajiit had once stood, there was now a creature not unlike Shadowfang's Sabre Cat form. There were, however, a few noticeable differences. The most notable being that this version of a bipedal Sabre Cat had large, leathery black wings, sprouting from its back. It also had a smaller visage which looked chillingly familiar to a Vampire Lord's appearance, but with thick black fur. Finally, although she looked smaller in build, the Sabre Cat Vampire Lord held a glowing red Drain Life in its left hand. When it spoke, its voice was much different to what it had once been.

"Now my sister, you shall experience the true power of the court of Lord Harkon!"

Ok, not the best chapter I know. Sorry guys but I really wanted to get the build up finished so I can focus on the battle of the beasts tomorrow. Things are beginning to pick up now so hopefully my depiction of battle isn't too cliché or stupid. Thanks again to Romancehowler for the character of Shadowfang and her sister as well as for their respective night creature forms. Also a huge, huge thank you to everyone who has read this story so far. I cannot believe that over 1,000 people have thought 'hey this might be good' and read my story. I seriously love you guys and I will do my very best to keep writing this story to the best of my abilities. Thank you so much guys, I wouldn't be writing this if it weren't for you! Talos guide you friends! Peace