Chapter 25 - Old Allegiances
With Auriel's Bow in our possession, it's time to confront Harkon... but Serana and I cannot take Castle Volkihar on our own. We need the Dawnguard. Somehow, we need to convince Isran to set his hate aside and help us. I hope he is willing to see reason.
"So, that's Auriel's Bow? I expected it to be... shinier." Serana commented dryly from the fallen log she sat upon, her chin resting in the palm of her right hand.
She was hunched over, her legs crossed, her elbow balancing on her knee, and a dull headache threatening to start by spiking into her temple. She was angry. She was tired. The early morning sun that was now drilling into her back certainly didn't do anything to alleviate either of these issues.
The Dragonborn stood a little ways away from her, holding the legendary weapon by its grip and rotating it around as she observed it. She used her bare fingers to trace along its sharp curves, a blank expression on her face.
In all honesty, Serana had been expecting more. Auriel's Bow looked like a modest Elven longbow, not the mighty weapon that it was described to be. She had felt its power, however, the moment she had retrieved it herself back in the Forgotten Vale, after defeating... Vyrthur.
Vyrthur. He was the source of her foul mood at the moment.
To think, her family had been torn apart by some bitter Auri-El follower, by his pettiness and rage. The prophecy her father had lost himself in had been real, and it had been created out of spite for an Elven God. Serana couldn't decide who she was more pissed off with at this point, Vyrthur, or Harkon.
Harkon had never been the best father, but if Vyrthur had not spun that prophecy, would he be any better now? Would he still be the haughty, highly egotistical man he had been before discovering the Tyranny of the Sun, or would have have found something completely different to obsess over and ultimately ruin their family?
The vampire sighed, closing her weary eyes.
There was no use mulling over the what ifs. What had been done had been done. There was no changing anything now.. but killing Vyrthur herself had been very therapeutic. Serana could at least take some satisfaction in that.
She opened her eyes when she sensed movement. The Dragonborn had joined her on the fallen log, Auriel's Bow resting in her lap.
Neither of them were very eager to start a conversation it seemed, seeing as the Dragonborn still had not said anything back at the comment Serana had made earlier.
The vampire looked at her companion from the corner of her eye, letting go of her chin for a moment to uncross her legs. She propped both of her arms on her knees, braced her chin on the back of her intertwined hands, and waited to see if the Dragonborn was going to speak.
At last, the woman beside her said: "Serana, are you..?" She then trailed off, a frown upon her lips, and she exhaled sharply before trying again. "Do you-"
The next second was a blur to Serana.
The two of them had been sitting in a small clearing right at the edge of the forest that led from the mouth of Darkfall Cave. The brush was tangled, and shadows masked the spaces below the canopy of tress that surrounded them.
She was sluggish, exhausted, and mentally clouded, so when an armored man suddenly exploded from the treeline with an ax lifted over his head, Serana could not react fast enough to avoid him.
The Dragonborn could, however, and she did. The woman surged forward, throwing Auriel's Bow out in front of herself. There was an echoing clang of metal against metal, and Serana flinched when a spray of sparks created spots in her vision. She found herself looking up at the blade of an ax merely inches from her face.
Her dead heart jumping with newly found adrenaline, Serana scrambled backward, pulling herself over the log and shooting to her feet.
"It's the Dawnguard!" The Dragonborn hissed, using Auriel's Bow to hook the curve of their attacker's weapon and wrench it from his grip. Now unarmed, the man peered down dumbly at his empty hands before the woman grabbed him by the side of his helmet and slammed his head into the nearest tree.
The Dawnguard grunted as he met with the tree trunk, bouncing back in an almost comical manner before collapsing in a heap on the forest floor.
The vampire scowled when the rest of the ambush revealed themselves, her free hand clenching as she prepared an ice spike. Great, just great. This was really what she needed right now.
The Dragonborn moved to confront the other two Dawnguard members, throwing Auriel's Bow to the ground and pulling free her silver sword from her hip.
"Serana, please, don't kill anyone!" The other woman pleaded as she met the swing of the next Dawnguard's ax, the desperation in her voice alarming enough to make Serana hesitate. She had been on the verge of launching an ice spike right through the lungs of the Dawnguard that was charging her.
Fine, fine. She wouldn't kill any of them, no matter how annoying these stupid mortals were.
Growling lowly in her throat, Serana dismissed her magic and moved her hand any from her own weapon.
The man rushing her was equipped with light armor, a single pauldron strapped to his shoulder gleaming in the daylight. Still, he was not as fast as her, and she dodged the ax blade that he swung at her.
Past the mortal, Serana caught a glimpse of the Dragonborn sweeping the legs out of from underneath her own opponent, and as she spun to avoid another swipe of the ax, she heard what sounded like the woman's boot coming in contact with the vampire hunter's gut.
Her attacker let out a war cry, gripping his weapon's handle with both hands as he swung again. Serana ducked, and wood splintered when the ax's blade buried itself into the tree she had backed into.
She was preparing to slip around the other side of the tree to put some space between herself and the vampire hunter, but she stopped, watching as the Dawnguard yanked on the stock of the weapon to no avail. The ax was stuck, and Serana had an opening.
Pulling herself upright, Serana reeled her fist back and sent it into the Dawnguard's jaw, snapping his head to the side. He made some strangled sound of complaint, but had not even made it to the ground before the Dragonborn pounced on him, wrenching his arms behind him and straddling his back.
"Lielle! What the hell are you doing?" The mortal man demanded.
Taking a couple of steps back, Serana scowled and crossed her arms.
This man.. his voice sounded familiar, and he seemed to know the Dragonborn, but only by the pseudo name that she had given the Dawnguard.
"What are you doing, Celann?" The Dragonborn retorted tersely, holding firm through his struggling.
The mortal, Celann apparently, curled his hands into fists. "I'm.. we're, trying to help you! This vampire turned you against your will, didn't she? You're under her spell, you don't know any better right now..."
Oh. So that's what this bullshit is about? Serana scoffed internally, her irritation expressed in the disgusted exhale that she let escape her. The high and mighty Dawnguard thought that she had seduced the Dragonborn, did they? Were they not more concerned with the threat of her own father trying to put out the fucking sun?
The Dragonborn's eyes darted upward to meet hers at the sound of it, and she shot Serana a look just as beseeching as the plea that she had made earlier.
Serana held back the acerbic reply that she had waiting for the mortal man, and remained silent.
The Dragonborn flashed her a brief, thankful smile, but it disappeared when she lowered her gaze back to the man beneath her. "No, Celann. She did not turn me against my will. She turned me to save my life."
Celann stopped writhing, his entire body rigid as he turned his helmet-covered head to look at her from the corner of his eye. "What? She saved you-" He cut himself off, his lip curling. "You're delusional, she has you enthralled, Lielle!"
You don't know a damn thing you ignorant, block-headed mortal! Serana hissed in her thoughts, her lips pressed tightly together to hold her tongue.
The Dragonborn took Celann's comment much more calmly, in fact, she appeared rather saddened at his words. All the more reason for Serana to be pissed off with the stupid mortal.
"Celann.." She sighed, her expression halfway blocked by her bangs, which had fallen over her eyes. Serana felt the urge to lean over and brush them away, so she could fully see the look on the woman's face. "I assure you I am in my right mind. Will you let me explain myself?"
Through the openings in his leather helmet, Serana watched as Celann's snarl dropped from his mouth, his brown eyes softening before closing completely.
"I want to trust you, Lielle.. but how can I? These vampires," At that word, the word that he spit like it was acid scorching the insides of his mouth, his eyes opened and immediately darted up to Serana. "They're monsters, savages, and liars." Celann declared bitterly while holding her gaze, his tone so accusing and full of hate.
Serana nearly rose to the bait, oh, she really wanted to. Her own frustration was bubbling within her like an inferno, clouding her head in a film of red and tempting her to just verbally rip into the mortal man.
But she said nothing, not a single sound as the pause left by Celann's sharp words drug along. She only narrowed her eyes at him, her lips pursed in an effort to stay silent.
The Dragonborn had some.. fondness for this mortal. Serana did not want to upset her, not even if what Celann had just said also insulted the Dragonborn along with her.
"There are exceptions, are there not?" The Dragonborn finally spoke, her voice small and hesitant, and Serana broke eye contact with the vampire hunter to look to her instead. Vague disappointment could be seen in her expression. "You heard me ask Serana not to kill anyone earlier when you were attacking her, and she didn't. She could have."
Exactly. Serana huffed to herself and looked back to Celann, to see his reaction.
The vampire hunter had stopped glaring at Serana, and appeared contemplative. Serana could almost imagine the gears turning inside his little brain.
The Dragonborn went on before he could reply. "Do you know of the prophecy that Serana told Isran and I?"
Celann nodded as much as he could with half of his face being pressed into the forest floor. "Yes.. about a month after you ran off with her," Serana broke into a wolfish grin at the inflection of envy expressed in that word, the satisfaction it brought helping cool off some of her anger.
That was right, mortal, the Dragonborn was hers, not the Dawnguard's.
"...A small group of vampires attacked Fort Dawnguard. We took one of the survivors as a prisoner, and he confessed his master's plans." There was a hitch in Celann's speech then, from tart to surprisingly regretful. "I was sent to retrieve you, to return you to Fort Dawnguard, and to kill.. her."
Of course, he did not need to give a name with that. Both women knew, and before they could speak, Celann continued talking. "I-is... is it true? The vampires are trying to put out the sun?"
Serana let the Dragonborn nod in confirmation for him, as she uncrossed her arms and stalked off toward Auriel's Bow where it had been abandoned on the ground.
The vampire reached down to gather the legendary weapon in her hands, feeling Celann's eyes upon her the entire time.
"That is Auriel's Bow." The Dragonborn told him. "It is what Lord Harkon is after. If its arrows are tainted with Serana's blood, it can extinguish the sun.
Curling her fingers around the Bow's handle, Serana held it vertically and used her free hand to casually pick at the weapon's string.
There was the sound of clinking metal and the rustle of leather, Celann must have jolted in place. The mortal's alarm was evident in his following, strangled shout of: "That's!?"
"Yes.." Serana drawled in deadpan at him, pulling the Bow's thread back, and letting it loose with a reverberating twang. "Us savage, conniving vampires have a weapon that we can use put out the sun, and we haven't, have we?"
"I didn't mean.." The vampire hunter sputtered out, finally seeming to realize that his hateful words also applied to Dragonborn now. He exhaled heavily, slumping back into to the ground. "I.. I believe you, Lielle."
At his concession, the Dragonborn released him and stood. Celann slid his now freed arms beneath his chest to push himself onto his knees, and the woman offered her hand to him.
Serana, the smirk having dropped from her mouth long ago, sneered slightly at the display of the mortal accepting the gesture, and being helped to his feet by the Dragonborn.
"I'm sorry." Celann told the woman sincerely, and Serana's expression smoothed out.
At least he had the decency to apologize. If only he had the nerve to say another sorry to Serana's face.
The Dragonborn shot him a fleeting, soft smile. "Celann.. will you return to Fort Dawnguard and try to reason with Isran? I just need him to understand that we have common goals. Harkon must be stopped."
The mortal man sighed, his eyes downcast. "I will try.. but Isran, you know how he is."
From what she could see of it through the openings in his helmet, Celann's expression twisted as he looked between his two unconscious fellow Dawnguard members. "You should go, before they come to." He suggested.
"Yes.." The Dragonborn agreed, her head tilting in Serana's direction. When their eyes met, Serana wordlessly nodded her own compliance, and the other woman strode toward the fallen log they had been resting on earlier to retrieve her bag.
Serana watched her sling its strap over her shoulder before turning toward the trees and beginning to walk with Auriel's Bow in hand. She had no idea which direction they should be going.. but they could work that out later. She just wanted to get away from the Dawnguard right now.
"Goodbye, Celann." She heard the Dragonborn call in farewell to the mortal man, and it was soon followed by hurried footsteps crunching over the fallen leaves and fir needles after her.
The two of them traveled in silence for some time, the sunlight threading through the branches of the trees dappling the forest in a borderline blinding golden glow that continued to torment Serana.
They were at least far enough from the vampire hunters that Serana could no longer detect their heartbeats when a hand closed around her forearm, bringing her to a stop.
The Dragonborn moved around her, her hold sliding up from her arm to the vampire's shoulder.
"Thank you, Serana." Was all she heard before she was pulled into a brief kiss.
Serana blinked several times when it ended, perplexed, but her mood had definitely been lifted. Her lips stretched into a pleased smile, and she chuckled faintly at the other woman. "For what? Not being a bitch to him?"
If being civil with these pestering vampire hunters earned her things such as that, Serana might be willing to compromise...
The Dragonborn laughed sharply and without humor, her touch falling away. She peered off into the maze of trees all around them, looking incredibly disheartened. Serana's delight drained from her.
"Celann is a good person. I know he is." The other woman insisted, lifting her fingers to her left earring to mess with it. She tapped at the piece of jewelry, making it swing back and forth. "He.. like much of the Dawnguard, are just too clouded by their hate to see clearly."
I hope.. I hope those mortals are willing to at least talk first before acting on that hate. Some of it surely was justified, Serana knew.. but having to rely on these vampire hunters for help was concerning to say the least.
Too exhausted both mentally and physically to keep up the conversation, Serana extended her unoccupied hand to the other woman.
Captured by the movement, the Dragonborn stopped fidgeting with her earring and peered down at the inviting hand for a moment. Next, the corner of her mouth quirked, and she placed her palm in Serana's.
I have been having a bit of writers block lately, so apologies for the length of this chapter and the bleh ending.
I've another chapter almost ready though, but it's not relating the main story.. it's more like a follow-up to one of the "side quest" chapters that I've posted before.