There was a crashing of an old antique pot as the last of the death hounds was hurled against the old musty table from the force of the fire bolt Sofia had thrown against him.

"Oh I hope that wasn't valuable," she said. Then she paused and looked at me. "Actually . . What do I care?"

We were in the castle. The old dock had proven a safe access after we had managed to kill of the five rather powerful skeletons which had been guarding it. Once we were inside, the decor suggested that this part of the castle had been so seldom used after the Volkihars had moved in that the original furnishings had been pretty much left untouched. Had someone cleaned this place up, it would have been a snapshot of life once upon a time. Now it was just another dusty ruin.

"I bet my parents didn't know half this part of the castle," Serana mused.

"You know this area?"

"Yeah. This was my old stomping grounds. Not the most normal childhood."

"Did you spend a lot of time down here?" I asked.

"I liked to explore. My parents would almost never let me off the island so yeah, I poked around down here a lot. It was a lot quieter back then. I guess a little vampire girl was enough to scare off the rats."

"That sounds pretty lonely," I said.

"You sound like you were a weird little girl," suggested Sofia.

"It was lonely," agreed Serana. "But I got used to it. And I think I turned out okay. And your brother thinks I'm enchanting."

She smiled at me and the turned and started to cautiously move ahead. Sofia took the time to look at me and silently mouthed "Okay? Vampire? Okay?" while rolling her eyes.

"You've been mysterious," I observed as we cautiously made our way forward. I paused to cast a detect life spell and then stopped it in a second. "Not much help in a castle filled with vampires," I mused.

"I like being mysterious," Serana replied. "I . . . I think I've found him Val. I think I've found the guy I want to be with."

"You sure it isn't too early?" I didn't want this conversation right now. Too much was at stake.

"You might be right, but Val . . . He's just what I'm looking for. He likes me just as I am."

"It would be a fun marriage," I suggested. "And it would be fun with you as my sister."

She got quiet. And I didn't press it. I had very tactfully reminded her that she was going to have to step into a temple to join with Aurelian.

Over the next few moments we skirted around corners and through rooms and dealt with skeletons of a rather powerful and dangerous sort. But eventually we reached a door and opened it up and stepped into the central courtyard of the castle. On all sides the two towers reached up and left us feeling very small and alone in a central open spot of ground. Above us, seemingly beyond hope, the stars twinkled. Serana smiled and put back her hood. But then as she continued to scan the courtyard, a certain sadness began to creep over her. She just started talking, bits and pieces really, about her memories. This had clearly been a special place for her.

"Oh no," she began. "What happened to this place? Everything's been torn down. The whole place looks . . . well dead. It's like we're the first to set foot here in centuries."

It was night and the towers were so high around us that you had to look almost up to see the stars. But from a Vampire's perspective, it would have meant that the sun would not have often shone straight down upon the place. There were two porches which were set about three feet above the ground of the courtyard and they had the remnants of furnishings still upon them. The central ground was ordinary lawn, but there was a very large moon dial in the center of the courtyard, an object which struck me as entirely impractical since the moon likewise would seldom shine down upon the ground. Likewise as I scanned the moon dial, the phases were off, those that were still present that is. A moon passes from new, to waxing crescent, waxing quarter, waxing gibbous, to full, then to waining gibbous, waining quarter, and finally waining crescent. This one . . . Well I'll be frank I had no clue what the phases were supposed to suggest.

"This used to lead into the castle's great hall," sighed Serana, looking at a collection of rubble which clearly seemed to block the passage to what had once been a major hallway into the front tower. "Looks like my father had it sealed up. I used to walk through here after evening meals. It was beautiful once."

I couldn't help myself, I looked at Sofia and she looked back at me. We both knew what Serana meant by evening meal.

Then she turned towards a second of the courtyard which had been fenced off and was still filled with a riot of Nightshade. It was the only plant which seemed to be still growing. There might have been other plants once upon a time, but this was all that was left. Frankly I wasn't surprised. While I was not the most skillful of alchemists, I could make a potion better than many since I had needed to learn how to make magicka potions and I had made hundreds of them by this point. In a serious magical fight, it was standard for me to consume at least five if not seven potions just to maintain a steady stream of fire. Needless to say, the only plants that could have thrived in this garden would have been those that were able to grow in almost complete shade.

"This was my mother's garden. It's . . . Do you know how beautiful something can be if it's tended by a master for hundreds of years? My mother would hate to see it like this," she mused. And then her eyes fell upon the moon dial. "Something's wrong with the moon dial here. Some of the crests are missing and the dial is askew. I didn't even know the crests could be removed. Maybe my mother is trying to tell us something."

"What she seems to be saying to me is that she was clueless as to the natural rhythms of the moon," I replied.

"What?"

"The Moon goes from full to new and then waxes back up here, see?" I replied pointing to the one bit of dial that remained intact. "That's not how the moon naturally progresses."

"Val, my mother knew the phases of the moon, that's the point!" she argued.

"You mean she's deliberately messed it up, that she was the one who played with things and moved them about and then tossed some aside?"

"Yes, that has to be it. If we can find the other pieces and reconstruct the puzzle . . ."

"Oh great," sighed Sofia. "Why can't we just have a lock that needs to be picked? That's so easy."

"Yes, Sofi," sighed Serana with a mild smile. "You would know all about that."

"And what do you suggest by that?" queried Sofia with her fists suggesting she would not be above giving Serana a swift kick in the backside. Yes, she balls her fists before she kicks someone.

"That you are a consummate locksmith," replied Serana in a tone which was entirely polite and had not even the faintest whiff of a hint of sarcasm.

Sofia looked at Serana, and then looked at me, while I smiled sweetly at her, and then looked at Serana again.

"I'm not sure if you two aren't rubbing off on each other or if you both had a distant ancestor . . ." she sighed.

"She's really better," I confessed. "You know when I'm being sarcastic."

"You know? You're right," observed Sofia. And she took a few steps and with a single swivel of her hips she kicked me in the backside hard enough that I staggered forward a bit.

"What was that for?" I shouted, not entirely without annoyance.

"Just in case," replied Sofia. "I feel better now anyway."

I sighed and stole a glance at Serana who looked back at me with an expression of purest childlike simplicity and innocence.

"How do you do that?" I shouted at her. "You're a vampire! How can you look like that?"

"Look like what, Val?" she replied quietly and innocently, almost like I had said something mean to her.

I sighed and shook my head. "If your mother turns out to be anything like you Seri, I'm going to go insane."

"You promise?"

Sofia took a few seconds to recover from her nearly rolling on the ground laughter.

I never could understand why Orc chieftains would take multiple wives. No man who wishes to retain at least a modicum of sanity allows himself to be exclusively surrounded by women, even young and beautiful ones. They all gang up on the single guy in a distinctly feminine way which is very hard to counter since you don't know where the next poke is going to come from. Suffice to say, one of the lessons of adventuring with Serana and Sofia was the one where you learn to develop a thick skin. "How could they treat you like that," you ask. "You're the Dragonborn!" True, I am. But Sofia was now my wife and saw me trying to put my underwear on every morning. And she gave Serana all the grizzly details about how this or that thing I had done on any particular day annoyed her and Serana, being a woman and understanding Sofia in ways I had yet to figure out, would offer the appropriate sympathetic gestures. So while Serana did not know what I looked like trying to get my underwear on, she had a pretty good idea from Sofia's descriptions. Suffice to say, the aura which came with being Dragonborn was insufficient to override the amusement that comes from seeing a man struggling with underwear which was tangled up in his knees.

"Allright," I said. "Let's get this puzzle solved."

We searched and found three missing pieces which we then proceeded to play arrangement elimination on the moon dial. At the moment we got the arrangement right, the moon dial began to act like some Dweemer construct and the next thing we were looking at was a circular staircase going down to a single doorway.

"Very clever mother," mused Serana. "Very clever."

Before we went down the staircase, I looked back up at the starry sky above, that small hexagonal spot where the sky remained. Then I looked about the courtyard again. Serana was doing that as well.

"I'd have to guess, I'd say the moment mother fled the castle, Father went on a rampage. Knowing him, anything at all that reminded him of her was just destroyed," she sighed.

I made a mental note. That was the behavior of a man who had, once upon a time, been in love with the woman who had left him.

"Then he just walled it off," I presumed.

"It appears that way, I suppose he wanted to put the past behind him. I suppose if he had spent more time with us he would have recognized the beauty for himself," she sighed.

I shook my head to myself. Serana had no clue. She still loved both her parents and that is a different love than the kind which you have with your beloved. She had no idea the depth of emotion, that horrid tearing of the heart which comes from someone so deeply involved with you betraying you. It doesn't matter how or why they betray you, but that they do. I didn't like what he had done to the courtyard, but I did not blame him for doing it either.

But that depth she was beginning to taste with Aurelian. The trick would be to get her to understand that the responsibility would lie with her, and not with him vis a vis her vampiric state. If she realized that he had every reason to reject her because she was a vampire, but love her if she was not, then she just might seek a cure. But at the same time she felt that her vampiric state was something which was owed her. After suffering at the hands of Molag Bal, she saw no point in giving up what she had gained, eternal youth and eternal beauty and a skill at slipping between the shadows which rivaled the Grey Fox himself, if such a man actually existed. But then again, she could enthrall him just a little, just enough to get him to accept her state. I didn't think she would resort to such a tactic, at least at first, but there was that self-centered focus on the blood. No matter how I looked at it, there was no way to know how it would turn out. And what was more annoying, it didn't matter how much I worried about it, it was two free willed human (well one former) beings who would be exercising that free will and making decisions. I had to trust her. I had no reason to not trust her yet. But the fact remained, she was a vampire.

"I've never even seen this part of the castle before. Be careful, we don't know what might be around," she warned us.

"Not that we ever know what's around in any other ruin we poke into," sighed Sofia.

Gargoyles are like Drauger, only more annoying. They both start out looking rather creepy, but lifeless. Then all of a sudden they come for you. The only thing that makes them tolerable is the fact that they make noise when they show up. Gargoyles snap, crackle, and growl. And Draugers just growl. The next thing about Gargoyles is that when they are destroyed, they shatter, and valuable gems and ores frequently are found among the rubble. The gems are okay, but the ore is almost always too heavy to haul back. I don't know how may piles of gold and silver I had to leave behind because we couldn't haul it. Now granted my financial prospects were looking way better than they had in months, not since I had left the Imperial City in fact. But I had gained and lost so much gold in in the past year of wandering that I was in no mood to see loot left behind. But this is what we were stuck with, getting to fight creatures which looked like rock and acted like rock. And then left a lot of what was valuable about them behind.

"Did your mother keep gargoyles here?" I asked Serana, trying to figure out if these were set up by her and giving us the usual grief things left behind are wont to do in old ruins, or if this was something special that had happened later.

"Not that I ever saw. My mother had a bit of a thing for magical constructs . . . Not not what you are thinking. She just found them fascinating," replied Serana.

"I've found few constructs fascinating as well," offered Sofia at this juncture. "Rods that vibrate I find very stimulating."

Both Serana and I looked at each other and then at Sofia.

"I mean intellectually!" she practically shouted.

"If you say so Sofi," suggested Serana.

"Would it be safe to say that if you were not a vampire," I mused. "You would be blushing, Seri?"

"It would be safe to say so," she replied.

Meanwhile we continued to work our way through sections of the castle which had one time been occupied the original occupants and left as is, and some places which had been occupied by the Volkihar clan at one point as well. There was one deep section, half filled with water, where the bones of the 'cattle' were deposited upon completion. The room was packed with bones and indeed, even as we were poking about it in, mostly looking for a way through, another skeleton came down the shaft with a clattering and clacking. Over all however, we kept climbing.

Engineering wise, it is not possible to build a stone structure higher than five stories. But Castle Volkihar was not a natural stone structure. We kept climbing until we could climb no more. There was simply no more hallway or doorway for us to pass through.

"We're not near the top yet, there has to be a secret passage here somewhere . . . Leave it to my mother. She always was smarter than I gave her credit for," sighed Serana.

"Parents do that to you," I mused looking at Serana. "So don't underestimate your father either."

Serana looked at me for a second, her natural surprise overriding her usual calm and placid demeanor before saying, "Thanks Val, I'll remember that."

"And I thought the 7,000 steps was annoying," muttered Sofia. "All this climbing and nothing to look forward to when we get to the top, like maybe a foot-rub?"

I started looking, sure enough after about ten minutes of looking for loose stones, wired books, and other secret sorts of latches, I found the candle stick holder that turned and the entire wall opened up. We found ourselves crossing a pathway to the next tower. Very quickly it became apparent that we were in areas of the castle which retained the original design and decoration.

"Do you know this place?" I asked.

"I had always just assumed that the other tower was just completely destroyed inside. My mother kept this a secret, even from me. She must have been up to something she thought was dangerous," replied Serana with a certain childlike wonder at seeing new stuff.

"No doubt," I mused. "Ticking off a Vampire Lord who is planning on taking over the world is always fraught with peril, especially if that Lord happens to be your husband."

"Valentine? Just so you know. I don't plan on ticking you off if you plan to take over the world. I'd actually kind of cheer you on," offered Sofia.

"That's awfully sweet of you, Sofi," I replied. I mean she was offering appropriate wifely support for all the wrong reasons but it was the first time she had actually offered it.

"I know it's sweet of me," she answered. "What can I say? I just drip sweetness when I love a guy."

"Like scent from a rose," mused Serana

"Yeah," answered Sofia.

"Like honey from the comb," I added.

"Yeah."

"Like mead from the bottle," continued Serana.

"Yeah."

"Like drizzle on a sweet roll," I continued

"Yeah."

"Like warm red blood from the throat," mused Serana.

"Yeah"

Serana and I looked at each other.

"Any more?" queried Sofia.

"Not right now," I added.

It took a few more rooms before Sofia 'got it'. She never kicked Serana. But she did kick me.

A few more halls and stairs and rooms, and a handful of gargoyle infested areas later, we opened a door on a massive room which consisted of a main floor and a balcony area overlooking it. There was another exit which led to a porch built into the tower and overlooking the docks we had originally gotten inside the castle from. I figured we were a few stories up. I just stood out on the balcony for a moment basking in the winter's sun, which wasn't anything remotely like warm. But there was no wind blowing off the Sea of Ghosts and accordingly I just enjoyed the sun for a moment.

"This has to be the place!" shouted Serana from inside.

"Come out here Seri," I suggested. "Get some fresh air and take a break."

"Not in the sun Val," she replied.

I was reminded what she was. There were times when I tended to forget. She could be just a clever brave girl at times. I sighed after a moment and walked back in. Sofia was taking advantage of the break to have a bottle of mead. Serana on the other hand was busy looking all over the place.

"Let's take a look around," she insisted. "There has to be something here that tells us where she's gone."

"What exactly are we looking for?" I asked.

"My mother was meticulous in her research. If we can find her notes, they might give us a clue," answered Serana.

I scanned around the place. It wasn't more than a couple of seconds that my gaze fell upon a very large collection of bookshelves. I had several small bookshelves in Proudspire, but nothing as large as what I was looking at. The closest I had seen was the walls of the Arcanium. While that library was far vaster Serana's mother's wall, this set of shelving looked almost modeled upon it.

"Your mother maintained quite a library," I observed. "Not to mention the entire room looks to be a very elaborate laboratory. Even my basement is not as elaborate nor as extensive is this."

"I had no idea her laboratory even existed. She had an alchemy set up in her drawing room. But nothing that even comes close to what's in here," continued Serana. Her tone expressed more and more amazement as we continued to examine the room and all it's storage, shelving, equipment and details.

"What did she research?" I queried. "What could she have possibly been trying to figure out?

"Looking at the equipment and materials, it looks like she was trying to advance her necromancy," answered Serana.

"Well that figures," I sighed. "Vampire, Necromancy, the dead researching magic related to death. Let me say 'well duh', no offense intended Seri. Not that I would have known without more research of this room. I mean yes, I know a bunch of destruction magic, but that's pretty much the extent of my knowledge vis a vis things magical which isn't just a superficial grasp. I have one last question though. She was researching Necromancy. To what end?"

"I don't know," answered Serana. "Certainly not longevity. Kind of a waste of time for a Vampire." She seemed to be thinking for a moment.

Sofia finished her mead bottle and just put it on a shelf next to a bowl of bone meal. I looked at her and smiled. She walked over and gave me a little hug and kiss. I took the time to bury my nose in her hair and sniff. It didn't smell particularly pleasant. To this day I can't explain to you why I liked 'snorting' as she put it, her hair.

"I remember she used to keep a small journal. See if you can dig it up," suggested Serana.

I walked back to the library, not that I needed an excuse mind you, I was busy finding books for my own collection when I had the opportunity. You would be amazed what survives in a ruin sometimes. So for the next few moments I happily worked my way through the books of the library while Sofia happily worked on yet another bottle of mead and Serana took the liberty to quaff a couple of blood potions. Journals in Skyrim are traditionally small leather bound books with button flaps. It was rather surprising that the fashion is as old as it is, for even though the book was at least a couple of thousand years old, it was in the same style. So I flipped through the pages, amazed that the thing could have survived, and then read it. Serana quickly figured out I had found it since she noted I was reading intently and so she came over and looked over my shoulder. She instinctively placed her hands on my shoulders as she looked and then Sofi cleared her throat.

"What's this Soul Cairn that she mentions?" I asked.

"I only know what she told me. She had a theory about soul gems. That they don't vanish when they are used, they end up in the Soul Cairn," answered Serana.

"Okay," Sofia replied. "Why would anyone care? Why would your mother care? Why did she care where used souls went?"

"The soul cairn is home to very powerful beings," replied Serana.

"Well that makes sense then," I mused. "Home to powerful beings, looking for a way to stop Harkon, let's make a deal right?"

Serana looked for a second at a central part of the main floor in the room where a series of hand cut stones formed a concentric set of circles, each one within the one greater. "That circle in the center of the room is definitely a kind of portal," she observed.

"Anything else you can tell us about the Soul Cairn?" I continued, looking through the journal. I had already made a mental note of Serana's latest observation about the floor work, but no one just goes somewhere if they can find out about it first.

"The Soul Cairn is a tiny sliver of Oblivion. The realm of the daedra. It is ruled by unseen beings known as the Ideal Masters."

"Oh boy," sighed Sofia, her tone dripping with her trademarked cheeky sarcasm. "Another bit of Oblivion. This is going to be so much fun."

"As Sofia hinted, Oblivion is not exactly the sort of place you want to take the family on a picnic to," I mused. "Even a vampire family. Why was your mother so fascinated by it?"

"Honestly I don't know. Necromancers are always interested in souls so that probably has come kind of interest."

"If souls really go there, or rather, soul gems," I sighed. "That would include black soul gems as well. What exactly are the Ideal Masters? Being that they are Daedra, I suspect I wouldn't care to invite one over for dinner and a drink."

"No one really knows. No one who has seen them has returned to Tamriel to tell of it."

"Tell me why I am not surprised," I replied.

"Then how are you sure they even exist?" exclaimed Sofia throwing her arms up.

"I've read stories. Stories about fools who tried to communicate with them. You give them souls, they give you power to raise the dead. It's all very business like," replied Serana.

"Anyone who deals with the lion's share of the Daedra are fools," I sighed. "Azura and Meridia being the two exceptions that comes to mind. What's the danger with the Idea Masters, outside of usual litany of unanticipated betrayal and death?"

"Because most of the stories end up with the Ideal Masters duping the Necromancers who end up dead or wishing they were dead," replied Serana.

"Ah, more treacherous than the usual Daedra," I replied.

Serana nodded. "Have you found the ritual she used yet?"

I shook my head, and then continued to read her mother's journal. Serana kept trying to peak over my shoulder so I sat down. I will be frank, it is a very strange sensation to recall that the person standing right behind you, right next to your exposed neck, is a vampire. As was her habit, she would lean closer and closer, to the point where I would literally sense she was within inches of me. Then she would put her hands on my shoulders, to lean in closer, and then Sofia would clear her throat and Serana would jump back.

"Here," I said when I got to the note. "Here it is, she's all excited about having come up with the connection."

"Let me see it!" snapped Serana reaching for the journal.

I handed it to her. She began to read it herself.

"She did it, she did it . . . DAMN!" Serana exclaimed.

"Now what?" snapped Sofia.

"She used her own blood as one of the components of the portal spell," sighed Serana. "Father wouldn't be able to follow her then. No one would."

"Well this has turned out to be a wasted trip," groaned Sofia. "Gonna need another bottle of mead to get over it." She pulled yet another bottle out from under her armor.

I sat down and exhaled for a moment. Serana watched Sofia drinking for a moment, then slipped her own backpack off, grabbed a blood potion bottle, then walked over and sat down next to Sofia. They both took swigs at the same speed and rhythm, stereo drinkers as it were. I looked at both of them for a moment. Then I found myself just staring dully at the blood in the blood potion bottle. Then it hit me.

"Blood . . . Seri . . . BLOOD! Your blood! You probably inherited your mother's blood!" I said standing up.

"Val? You sure?"

"What other option have we got at this point Seri? We have to try, we have to find that Elder Scroll and your mother is the only link we've got. The Gods don't leave you unable to save the world because of circumstance, they always make sure there's a way. Seriously Seri, what are the odds of someone finding two Elder Scrolls let alone one? We even have a Moth Priest to read them back in Castle Dawnguard.

"You didn't find two Elder Scrolls," objected Serana.

"Yes I did," I retorted. "I open this ancient tomb and there it is, on your back. We plunge into Blackreach and there it is, in this gigantic Dweemer machine at the end of a road, courtesy of a nutcase in the middle of a glacier. My life couldn't possibly get any stranger right now. In fact, these past five months of my life has been a constant mockery of every law of averages I know of. Seriously Seri, we are on the right track. This will work, I know it."

Serana looked at Sofia who shrugged and said, "He's gonna pull another rabbit out of a fox hole, you just watch."

Serana started to take big gulps from her blood potion and then Sofia said, "No, like this." and proceeded to demonstrate her own style of bottle draining, which I had first observed in Riften the day she had finally 'fessed up that she loved me. Serana watched her for a second, then tried it. It took her a couple of lifts and swigs, but she figured it out quickly enough.

"And you thought that because you were a few thousand years old you couldn't learn something new," bragged Sofia.

Serana quickly thumbed back to the recipe and began to call out the alchemical components. I dashed from one end of the room to the other, always snagging every single bit and piece of plant and animal product stuffed in the various vases and jars and bowls. You don't let powders in this quantity go to waste. And as I passed Sofia going back and forth, I'd steal a kiss or two from her. She seemed a willing participant in that part of the job. All the while Serana was busy adding a pinch of this that smelled like soot, a handful of that which smelled like an old dirty wash cloth, and a bowl of the other stuff that smelled simply awful. And then she pulled out her dagger and took off one of her black leather gloves with the silver inserts and looked at me almost biting the bottom of her lip. But she didn't because she had two teeth a bit too sharp for that.

"The rest is up to me. Are you ready to go? Because I'm not entirely sure what is going to happen when I add my blood," she asked.

I looked down at the stone inlays on the floor beneath the balcony we were standing on. Then I looked back at Serana. Her face was, as usual, pale so I had no idea how nervous she was at this juncture.

"Can I ask you something first?" I queried.

"Of course what is it?" she replied. She was more than happy to put it off just a moment more.

"What will you do if we find your mother?"

"I've been asking myself the same thing since I got back to the castle. She was so sure of what we were doing. I never thought of the cost," answered Serana.

"Given all that has happened, given how this has all played out," I mused. "I can't help but get the idea that she did everything for your sake. I mean," here I kind of tossed my arms about. "She seals you up in a tomb, but she goes into Oblivion herself. She clearly took the more dangerous option. She might not even have survived down in there. We may never find her . . . Though I suspect we will . . . Or if not, rumor of where she went . . . Even after all this time . . . This has just turned out too . . . How shall I put it? Not fated of course, there's no such thing, only action and consequence. Well . . . Someone I think I prodding me in the right direction so subtly that I don't know he's doing it."

"Sanguine?" offered Sofia. "He said he was going to help us."

"He also said he doesn't think these things out very carefully either," I replied. "No, he's not the one doing it. His help was that Rose Staff we've not used . . . Ever . . . For reasons both of us know very well."

"We do? Valentine you're the one who's never used it. And you're the one who took it and stuffed it into Breezehome in that locked cabinet in Lydia's room and gave her the key with instructions to never let me touch it."

"Oh yeah, that's right," I replied remembering.

"And how do you know what it does? It might conjure free booze!"

"You mean the sort that gets us so drunk we wake up in bed married to someone else?" I replied.

Sofia paused for a moment and let her mouth hang open. "Oh yeah . . . That would be kind of awkward for the two of us."

Serana watched this typical Valentine/Sofia exchange with her usual musing amusement. Then seemed to think for a moment. "You say that she did things for my sake. It's possible. I guess a Vampire mother is still a mother. She worried about me. She worried about all of us. It's possible she wanted to get me as far away from him before he really went over the edge," she concluded.

"We won't know until we find her," I concluded.

"Yes, your right. I just guess I didn't think anyone would care about what I thought about her," answered Serana.

"Huh?" replied Sofia. "You've been with us for how long Seri and you think we don't care? I mean I care, especially who you are thinking of eating next not that I think you're going to eat me because you've been really nice about it so far and all that and so long as it's not me I don't really care who you eat unless it would turn out rather awkward and I mean as in biting the neck and drinking the blood and not that other kind of eating which someone's dirty mind is no doubt thinking of and . . . I'll just shut up now."

Serana smiled for a second, and then walked over and gave Sofia a big hug and kiss on the neck.

"Let's get that portal open," I suggested once Sofia had gotten her attitude back after that sudden sentimental expression of Serana's had knocked her sidewise emotionally speaking.

"All right, here goes," she said as she poked her finger and squeezed a drop of her blood into the mixture. Now that I think back on it, I can't help but wonder if it was in fact Serana's blood at all. Does a vampire's blood come from their own body or does the blood which they consume work it's way into their system afterwards? It's one of those curious questions I didn't ask at the time. One of those questions that really ought to have been answered before we did this. Not that it mattered in the end. There was a sudden flash of light and then the stone inlays began to rise or fall and arrange themselves into a floating staircase that descended through the floor into . . . Well into some place else. It wasn't a flaming flowery arch like I had heard described during the Oblivion Crises, but I couldn't help but wonder if there had been any similarities.

"By the blood of my ancestors, she actually did it, created a portal to the soul cairn. Incredible," sighed Serana.

"Well," I said. "Looks like I get to lead the way." And I started down the stairs towards the glow. And almost immediately felt a horrible cold pain sucking loss. I staggered back up the stairs and the sucking stopped. I paused for a moment and tried to catch my breath. For some reason or other a comment made by a robed Khajit named Maiq we had passed on the road once on our way to Solitude went through my head. "Maiq was soul trapped once. It was not a pleasant experience. You should think about that some time."

"Are you alright, that looked painful," offered Serana.

"Incredible deductive capability you have there Seri. It was. What happened?"

"Now that I think about it, I should have expected that. Sorry. It's hard to describe. The Soul Cairn is, . . . Well hungry is the best word. It's trying to take your soul as payment."

"Whoopee, I love having my life sucked out on my way to Oblivion," exclaimed Sofia.

"So there's no way in?" I queried on impulse. Then I thought for a second. "There has to be a way in Seri. What are we not thinking about? What is the special secret password we have to say?"

"There might be, but I don't think you're going to like it. Vampires are not counted among the living. I could probably go through there without a problem," Serana pondered for a second.

"Try it and see," I suggested.

"Valentine you mean have her turn you into a Vampire? You do that and I swear I'll scream every time you nibble on my neck!"

"No no no Sofi, I mean have Seri try the staircase."

Serana nodded and walked down the stairs and reached the point where the light nearly suffused her. Then she turned to me and came back up.

"No problem," she said.

"Just the sort of thing I was planning to do on my schedule today," came the cheeky sigh of Sofia. "Kill skeletons and skeevers, explore a haunted castle, fight gargoyles, loot cupboards, have a few bottles of mead, become a vampire on my way to Oblivion . . . Did I miss anything?"

"Not your first choice I'd guess?" queried Serana looking at us.

"You know we care about you Seri," I said. "But . . ."

She seemed to be just a little disappointed. I almost felt guilty saying no.

"Probably for the best," she sighed. "Turning someone is a rather intimate moment for us and Sofi would probably want to kill me the moment it was over with and she had experienced the full transformation and knew what you had gone though with me."

"Yeah, I'd rather not kill you now Seri," agreed Sofi. "I mean who would I go drinking with when we get back and celebrate? Valentine just doesn't have the capacity you have, he gets all rubbery and bendy and it's just no fun trying to make love to him unless I apply a few fingers for support and . . ."

Serana had just slowly turned away while I tried to bury my face in my hands. Once I had recovered . . .

"There has to be another way," I argued. By now I had become somewhat firmly convinced that the Gods were directing my life in ways which guaranteed that I would be able to do what I had to do without making any moral compromises. I mean, I wasn't thrilled at being the hero of the story, but damn it, if the gods had made me the hero I was going to be the hero. And there had been consolations . . . I looked over at Sofia, that long curled black hair flowing to her shoulders, those big blue eyes, that gentle cinnamon sprinkling of freckles under them. Her full soft cheeks and gentle pink lips . . . smooth chin and graceful neck. I just turned to her for a moment of inspiration while Serana seemed to think for a second.

"Maybe," she offered. "We could just pay the toll another way. It wants a soul, so we give it a soul, yours."

"Come again? I don't see myself being particularly helpful if I'm just a little soul gem you plop into the basket on the way in."

"Well if you were the sort that vibrates on cue and had smooth rounded sides it might be okay," offered Sofia.

I turned and looked at her.

"It was a joke?" she suggested.

"My mother taught me a trick or two. I could partially soul trap you. It would make you a bit weaker but we might be able to fix that on the other side," offered Serana. "That's the other option anyway. I'm sorry, I wish I knew there was a better way. Just know that, which ever path you choose, I won't think any less of you."

I walked over to Sofia, and turned her to face Serana with me while I put my arms around her shoulders and just looked at Serana for a moment. Sofia leaned back on me for support. Serana nodded.

"Soul trap," I said. "It's the best option."

"I know this is difficult for you. Know that I would never do anything that would hurt either of you," Serana said.

"We trust you Seri," I said. "We have stood back to back and fought the world. That's a bond that transcends even sharp fangs and cold shoulders."

Serana smiled and nodded. She took a soul gem and with a flick of magic, I felt a sudden pull and Sofia's 'uh!' told me she had felt it too. With soul gem in hand, we descended into Oblivion.

The light flashed, Sofia yelped, and we were in. Above us was a perpetual thunderstorm without rain. Around us was a night time desert, scattered about where the white shades of lost souls wandering. Like Blackreach, there was a timelessness about the place. But while Blackreach seemed to be timeless since it was deep beneath the earth and thus you saw no transition of seasons or sunlight, this was timeless precisely because there was no change at all. You could hear the wind, but there was no sign that the wind was blowing. No dust was so much as rippled. We couldn't even leave foot prints behind us. I had no idea how much time was passing.

There were buildings, but they seemed to be just random halls and rooms and porches. What purpose did they serve? I had no clue. What I did find was that at the cracks which occasionally erupted about the ground would settle once a soul gem was placed over them. The soul gem would fill and the crack would settle back down.

I had no idea how long we had wandered, but off in the distance I noted there was strong magic. We wound our way towards it, fighting off routine groups of undead who seemed to thrive in the Soul Cairn.

"This must be why Necromancers want to make deals with the Ideal Masters," mused Serana as we finished off yet another half dozen very hard to bust skeletons. "These undead are far more powerful than anything you can find on Tamriel, relative speaking that is."

"Yeah, these skeletons are way more annoying than the one's that were guarding your castle," I replied gulping down yet another magicka potion as a bit of insurance should we encounter a second wave.

Slowly we approached that source of powerful magic and as we got closer, we found a large almost palatial structure. Yet at the same time it was equally useless in terms of practical design. But as we reached it, I noted that the magic I had sensed was the great wall of force which surrounded the building. Something either was being kept in, or trying to keep something else out. And as we closed in, we noted the something behind the barrier. It was very quietly and calmly making a potion on a little alchemical table. Getting closer, I realized that the something was a woman, who was dressed in a style similar to Serana. Then she sensed us and turned around. The face made it beyond all doubt. It was filled with bits and pieces which suggested Serana. And her eyes made it clear she was, like Serana, vampiric. We had found Valerica.

"Mother? Mother?" cried Serana running towards the barrier.

"Maker, it can not be. Serana?" cried her mother, half in shock and half in delight, and not a little terror and uncertainty thrown in.

"Here comes another touching family reunion," sighed Sofia. "Is the bucket ready?"

I was in Oblivion and surrounded by all that Oblivion suggested, hopelessness, ugliness, despair, and yet . . and yet . . . I managed to find the courage to swat Sofia on the tush.

"Is it really you? I can't believe it. How do we get inside? We have to talk!" cried Serana.

We have to talk. This sums up every issue I have with the female of the species. We are in Oblivion. There are daedra and undead. There is horror and futility. Death is around every corner. Pain and torment fill the senses. You can't walk through it and not be almost overwhelmed with the supernatural horror that is Oblivion. It is the plane of existence that you don't wish upon even the most brutal and cruel of humanities enemies. And here's the woman we need. Here's the woman who seriously needs to be rescued from this if I am to have any heroic qualities present within me. So naturally they are going to talk. The three of them promptly clustered with only the magical barrier separating them. Me? I just leaned on the barrier and waited for the tea and crumpets to be distributed.

"Serana, what are you doing here? Where's your father?"

"He doesn't know we're here. I don't have time to explain!"

We don't? I looked about. Nothing particularly interesting was happening at the moment. Oh look, another flash of lighting illuminating the horribly depressing landscape filled with dead and ought to be dead things. Only interesting thing that's happened is how we spent the last few hours greatly reducing the undead population of this little slice of Not Even Remotely Hinting of Paradise.

"I must have failed. Harkon has found a way to decipher the prophecy hasn't he?"

This woman desperately needed to be extracted from this place. It had clearly gotten to her in some fashion. Every single option she had running through her head was that something horrible was happening.

"No you've got it all wrong. We're here to stop him. Make everything right!" insisted Serana.

A relative statement when it's coming from a Vampire, granted. But this is Serana we're talking about.

"Wait a moment! You've brought strangers here? Have you lost your mind? You! Come forward. I would speak with the two of you."

Yes, you guessed it. Strangers. We don't know what they are or why they are here so we are going to Talk! It looked as if she had suddenly noticed Sofia standing next to her and likewise me who no doubt was looking more than a little annoyed over the fact that what should have been a find and rescue operation had transformed into a chat fest. I walked forward with no doubt an attitude etched upon my face.

"So how is it that a vampire hunter is in the company of my daughter?" snapped Valarica.

"Hey, when you're a vampire hunter you're bound to find a vampire on occasion," snarked Sofia. She had actually expressed the answer that was going through my head.

Valerica seemed to be ignoring Sofia's comment since she was clearly convinced that something horrible was about to happen. "It pains me to think," she continued. "You'd travel with my daughter under the guise of her protector in an effort to hunt me down."

My my aren't we paranoid? This is what happens to you when you hang out in Oblivion boys and girls, so when given the opportunity? Don't take it.

"Seri is our friend!" objected Sofia. "We'd never do anything to her!"

"This is no ruse," I said.

"Coming from one who murders vampires as a trade, I find it hard to believe your intentions are noble." was her retort.

"Well maybe if you were not so busy eating people we wouldn't feel the need to make such career choices!" was Sofia's reply. "I've been in your castle, I got to walk over all the bones!"

"Serana has sacrificed everything to prevent Harkon from completing the prophecy. I would have expected her to have explained that to you."

"She did," I replied. "She risked her life trusting us. She even risked her life coming to Castle Dawnguard. "Your daughter has shown incredible courage throughout this entire affair," I continued. "If it were not for her devotion to stopping her father, we would not be here. This is why we've come. We want the last of the three Elder Scrolls needed to stop him."

"Oh?" replied Valerica. "You think this is all about the Elder Scroll?"

"Well of course," replied Serana. "That's why you sealed me up in that tomb, to protect the Elder Scroll. And that's why you came here, to protect the Elder Scroll." Serana paused, somewhat uncertain. "Isn't that what this is all about mother?"

And so we found ourselves with a brand new twist to the whole affair. One we were about to find out about. And in order to discover this, we had yet to discover the cost we had already paid. That cost would not become apparent for another few days.

Such are adventures.