The world spun around Akiseta, and panic gripped her as she felt herself plummeting. She couldn't survive this fall. And she couldn't die here, either.
"Feim!" The Shout left her mouth seconds before her body hit the ground. She felt the impact, but no pain followed.
There was no pain in her body. Her nose and mouth no longer hurt, and her shoulder didn't hurt either. Even the hollow ache in her chest had gone away. Aches she hadn't known she was feeling were gone too. Her mind felt relaxed, and a little fuzzy. The blade-sized arrow had fallen to the ground, and had snapped in pieces. Her backpack had fallen nearby, as had her sword. The strange sky of the Soul Cairn and the parts of the spire Akiseta could see had blue-grey hues.
Akiseta closed her eyes. The unearthly sounds and the graveyard scent were so faint that she could almost believe she were back home. The lack of temperature was still present, but she couldn't feel temperature in this etheral state anyway. She knew the peaceful euphoria would go away when the Shout's effect wore off, but she wanted to indulge in it for now. Especially after what that Keeper did to her.
'The Keeper! Serana!' Akiseta sat up. Serana was still at the top of the spire with that thing. She needed to get back up there. She stood up, but jumped back with a start as the bone-clad mass of the Keeper fell to the ground, along with a being that looked like the creature Harkon had become, though a bit more slender. Akiseta remembered Serana had those powers too.
Serana had her back mostly turned to Akiseta. The Keeper started to try and move. With a deep, gutteral snarl. Serana drove her claws into the Keeper's already tore up chest, shoving her arm into the creature. The Keeper fell flat, and the head flame went out. Black goo leaked out of the bone armour.
Serana pulled her arm free, black goo sliding off. She stood slowly, body trembling. The wing-limbs on her back hung limply.
"Are you alright, Serana?" Akiseta asked, her words sounding echoed. Another distant scent came to her, but she couldn't place it.
Serana offered no response. She placed her hand against the spire, digging her claws into it. She reverted back to her normal self, clothing tattered in some places. She leaned against the spire, her breathing sounded laboured.
"Serana?" Akiseta asked again. She approached her friend, her body starting to become corporeal again.
"Aki.. you're alright..." Serana said softly.
As her body became fully corporeal, the distant scent came to Akiseta, and she froze. It was blood. A lot of it.
A large piece of a broken arrow had gone straight through the protective leather on Serana's tunic. It appeared to have been driven low into her left side, then shoved up towards her ribs. The cut was long, and jagged. The arrow was slanted at an angle. The fall must have snapped it half. And driven it deeper in.
'Gods no...' Akiseta grabbed Serana as she began to stumble, and helped her into a seated position, leaning her against the spire. Panic gripped her chest.
Serana looked at Akiseta, face bearing exhaustion rather than pain. That wasn't a good sign. The vampire looked at the arrow, and weakly tried to take hold of it.
Akiseta slapped her hand away. "Don't do that! You'll make it worse!" She yelled, harsher than she intended. Serana lowered her hand, turning her head away.
Akiseta scrambled for her backpack. She dumped a bunch of things out, not wanting to waste time. She snatched up a blanket, bunched it some, and pressed it firmly against the wound, just under the arrow shaft. She grabbed it tightly. She would have to work fast.
She pulled the arrow free, tossing it aside and pressing the blanket against the wound as more blood started to flow.
"It's hot." Serana whispered, still looking off the other way. Her eyes looked distant.
Akiseta shushed her. "Don't talk. Save your strength."
"For what? You can't heal this..."
"Be quite." Akiseta insisted. She wrapped the blanket tightly around Serana's torso. 'So much blood... If the arrow had gone a little higher...' She shuddered, not wanting to think about that.
"So stubborn. It's sweet of you, really." Serana coughed. "I never imagined this would happen, especially in a place like this.."
"Don't talk like that." Akiseta hissed. "You're going to be fine." 'She's going to be fine. She has to be.' Fear gripped Akiseta's insides.
Serana coughed again, this one bringing up a bit of blood from her mouth. The arrow must have pierced deeper than Akiseta had thought. She wiped the blood from from Serana's face with the back of her hand. The vampire offered her a weak smile.
Akiseta's mind raced, trying to think up something, anything, that would help. She remembered an old tome she'd found in Dimhollow, a particular Restoration spell. She'd studied the tome, but could she cast the spell?
"I'm glad you're here with me, Aki. Going through... going through this with you... with someone who cares about me... that makes it easier." Serana gasped out.
"Stop talking like that!" Akiseta snapped. "You're going to be fine, so stop talking like you're not! I'm not letting anything happen to you! I'm not losing you!" She knew it wasn't Serana's fault. The vampire's mind was clouded by the injury. She may not have even been aware what she was saying. But Akiseta didn't like hearing those things. She wasn't losing Serana.
Serana turned her head again, closing her eyes.
"Hey!" Akiseta snapped her claws. "Stay with me!" Serana looked at her a moment, before closing her eyes again.
Biting back a growl of frustration, Akiseta pulled back the blanket some. She pressed her hand against the punture wound. Serana's blood felt like ice.
'Mara.. Divines... Hist... if anything can hear me, please let this work...' She prayed. She focused on her magicka, focused on channeling it the way the tome had described.
Tears of relief sprang to her eyes as a soft golden glow shown under her palm. It worked!
Her relief turned to panic shortly as the light began to faulter. She could feel her magicka energies trembling.
'No... no no no! Not now! Why!?' She could hold spells longer than this. What was happening?
Part of her soul was gone. That's why. It had weakened her physically. Of course it had weakened her magically too.
Akiseta focused harder, pushing harder on her magicka, trying to sustain the spell. It held a little longer, then the light faded away, leaving Akiseta exhausted and in panic. Serana's wound was nowhere near healed, and the vampire had lost consciousness.
Sifting through the clutter on the ground, Akiseta grabbed a magicka potion. Yanking off the stopper, she downed the potion quickly. Her head swam as the energies returned to her intensely. She tossed the bottle aside, and resumed trying to heal the wound.
She repeated the process of guzzling down the magicka potions fast a few times. Her vision blurred, a harsh ache came to her head, and a sharp pain ran through her, but she didn't care. She needed to heal Serana. She wasn't losing her. She couldn't.
Akiseta got the worst of the wound to close. It wasn't much more than an open cut at this point. She went to drink another potion. Before it barely got down her throat, she dropped the bottle. Doubling over, she vomitted out what little she'd managed to drink, along with filmy liquid.
She hissed, spitting in attempt to rid her mouth of the vile taste. 'No more magic for me for a while, it seems.' She looked over at Serana, eyeing the wound. She'd have to bandage it.
Digging through her backpack, she pulled out some bandage wraps and some cloths. She glanced back at Serana. She had to remove her tunic to clean away the blood.
Since Serana's tunic was torn in places, Akiseta was able to tear at the rips, prying it off. Her stomach clenched up at seeing Serana's pale skin covered in dark blood. She gingerly cleaned the blood away with the cloths. Serana twitched and shifted around a little, but didn't wake.
Akiseta wrapped the bandages around her friend's torso, tying them securely. She pulled one of the pelts from her backpack, and adjusted it around Serana like a blanket.
She leaned back against the pillar, exhausted. She winced as she felt pain in her shoulder, and looked to see a decent sized hole in her amour and shoulder. She'd almost forgotten she'd been shot.
Undoing the straps on the pauldron, she let it fall to the ground. She attempted a simple healing spell, but the light faded from her hand as soon as she tried to summon it.
Grabbing a healing potion, she started to pour it in her mouth. Upon feeling her stomach roil, she spat it out. She closed her eyes, breathing deeply and slowly to quell the nausea. 'Seriously? Rejecting all potions?' She mentally scolded herself.
She looked at the potion, then at her shoulder. Biting her lip, she gripped the ground, digging her claws into the dirt. She poured the potion onto the wound.
She let out a hiss as she felt her shoulder sting. It worked, though. She watched the wound close, liquid dripping from her shoulder. Her mouth and nose still hurt, but there wasn't much she could do about that. She looked back at Serana, who still had yet to wake.
"I can't believe I came so close to losing her.' In a part of her mind, the whole thing didn't seem real. She'd never imagined something bad happening to Serana.
They were in the midst of something truly dangerous, but Akiseta hadn't really thought any true harm would come to Serana. This journey was far more dangerous then she'd realized. What if she hadn't found that tome? What if she hadn't been able to cast the spell?
Akiseta couldn't bear to lose another friend. She'd lost enough people. She couldn't begin to think of losing Lydia. And Lucia... Anything happeneing to Lucia would be the end of the world for Akiseta. And the though of losing Serana made her heart ache.
Her body ached, and her head hurt. She felt nauseous, and a little hot. A part of her wanted to drift into sleep, and escape things for a time, but that would be bad. They'd be exposed to the skeletal creatures. And there was still Durnehviir to worry about. Since all the Keepers were dead, he was sure to show up at some point.
She dug some Fly Amanita from her bag. She found the mushrooms growing in Valerica's study. She popped one of them into her mouth, chewing it slowly. The spongy mushrooms would give her enough of an energy boost to stay awake.
It was dark, but it was peaceful. Serana didn't want to part from wherever she was. But she steadily became aware of pain. She opened her eyes, blinking. She attempted to move, and winced. Looking down at herself, she saw her torso was covered only by her bra, and bandages. An animal pet was draped over her shoulders. She picked up a vague scent of blood. A dull ache throbbed in her head, and she tried to recall what happened.
"Hey, you're awake."
Serana turned her head to see Akiseta looking at her with a relieved smile. Her eyes looked blood-shot. It came back to her. She remembered seeing Akiseta get shot, and fall off the spire.
"Aki... you're alright!" Without thinking, she threw her arms around Akiseta, then groaned as pain flared up her side, and she pulled away, clutching her side.
"Easy there." Akiseta gently eased her back against the spire. "Yes, I'm fine."
"But how? You got shot. You.. you fell.."
"My Thu'um saved me. I can call upon one that prevents me from being hurt."
Serana vaguely recalled hearing something she thought was in Akiseta's voice. She'd been too distressed to pay much attention.
"I thought you were.. I didn't know if you'd.. I was worried about you, Aki." She said softly. "I thought I was going to lose you."
"You're not getting rid of me that easily, beeko." Akiseta said with a smile.
Serana wasn't feeling so jovial. "I don't want to get rid of you at all. When I saw you fall, I thought.. I thought you were... and I.. I just felt.. I felt so..." She couldn't really remember her thoughts, and her feelings had been jumbled together in a big mess.
"Hey, hey. It's okay. I'm right here." Akiseta placed her hand on Serana's shoulder, which was bare since the pelt had slipped off. Her hand felt warmer than usual.
Serana placed her hand over Akiseta's. "I know you are. But I was so afraid you wouldn't be. I've never lost anyone, Aki. Not like you have. There was that.. that rift between Mother and me, and.. and Father..." Serana shook her head, unable to come up with how to describe that mess. "I've known people who've died, but they weren't people important to me. They were just members of Father's court. And I was never afraid of anything happening to Mother. She's always been stronger than me."
Serana took a deep breath before she continued. "But... When I thought you.. when I thought I might lose you... That... it scared me. It... it hurt me. You're the only friend I've ever really had. You're pretty much my best friend. And I... well, I didn't want to lose you. And, having to tell your daughter.." It pained Serana to think of what would happen to Lucia if something were to happen to Akiseta. The child would have been heartbroken.
"I don't plan on dying anytime soon, beeko. I can assure you of that. You won't lose me. But I almost lost you."
Serana looked down at her bandages. "Was it really that bad?"
"If the arrow had gotten even a little higher, it would have pierced your heart."
'Well, that's comforting.' Much of what happened after Akiseta fell was a blur in Serana's mind. She could remember getting stabbed after assaulting the Keeper, but the rest was fuzzy fragments. Had she really come close to dying? "How.. how bad was it?"
Akiseta turned her gaze to the ground. "You.. you spoke like you were already doomed to die. It scared the kaoc out of me. Then you lost consciousness. The wound was deep. I think the fall you took drove the shaft deeper in. You lost a lost of blood."
Serana looked at her side. The bandages were only slightly bloodstained. "This doesn't look that bad."
"I healed you."
"How?"
Akiseta dug through her backpack, and pulled out an old looking tome. It bore a faded symbol attributed to Restoration magic. Akiseta handed to her. "Using this." The Argonian said.
Serana looked through the faded pages. "I don't believe it. There really is a spell that can heal the undead." She'd heard talk of such magic back at the castle, but none of the court had seemed to believe in its validity. "This spell seems complicated. It's impressive that you were able to cast it, especially in your current state."
Akiseta shrugged, smiling shyly. "I don't about impressive."
Serana shook her head with a small smile. Akiseta's modesty was endearing. And it was cute to see her in those rare moments she ever got flustered. She looked back at the tome. "Where did you find this?"
"In Dimhollow."
"Wait. You kept this all that time? Why?"
"Well, you know I don't really have much interest in magic outside of Restoration. How much do you know about Restoration?"
"Aside from healing and Wards, I know that there are spells that can simutale fear into the undead."
"Well, I don't really know how to do those spells. For me, I don't see the point of driving draugr and skeletons away. If someone came into a tomb down the road, they would just get attacked too. I prefer to fight them. As for the vampires of Skyrim's wilds, if I make them leave me alone, they'll attack someone else later. There are also some spells I've seen Isran use. They seem to imitate the effects of fire and sunlight, only hurting the undead. I'd love to study those, when there's time. But I've never seen a Restoration that can heal the undead. It was so fascinating that I had to study it. And it came in handy after all."
Serana nodded. Akiseta's fascination with restorative magic was its own point of interest. Perhaps it was tied in to her devotion to Mara. "It sure did." Looking a bit behind Akiseta, she noticed empty magicka potion bottle strewn about. "What's with all those?"
Akiseta bit her lip. "Well, having part of my soul gone has weakened me magically just as much as it has physically. My magicka drained far toon soon, so.."
"You didn't drink them all at once, did you?" Serana asked, alarmed.
"No. Just when my magicka began to fade."
Serana looked at Akiseta's eyes again. The veins she thought were bloodshot were not red, but pale blue. And she noticed small shivers going thorugh Akiseta's body.
Ignoring the pain it brought, Serana leaned forward, placing a hand on top of Akiseta's head, near the base of her feathers.
"Your hand feels nice. The coolness, I mean." Akiseta murmured.
Serana moved hand to Akiseta's cheek. Her scales were way too warm.
"Do you feel anything? Like feeling sick?"
"I feel a little nauseous."
Serana moved her hand. "It could have been worse. Your body is in mild shock. You can't drain yourself of your magicka and then force it to replenish so much so quickly, Aki. It's dangerous."
"I didn't know it could be that dangerous. I told you, the convolutions of magic aren't my strong suit."
"You need to be careful, especially since part of your soul is gone. You could have seriously hurt yourself!"
"Well I had to do something! I couldn't let you die! I've lost to many people I care about. I couldn't bear losing you too. And having to tell your mother... telling a parent they lost her child is just as hard a telling a child they lost their parent."
"I know, Aki. I know. I understand. And I appreciate what you did." She placed her hand on Akiseta's arm. "Just please be more careful from now on, okay?"
Akiseta nodded. "I will. You should be too."
"Then let's both agree to to not get ourselves killed."
Akiseta chuckled. "You got it."
Serana smiled, then frowned as she looked towards Akiseta's neck. "Where's your necklace?"
Akiseta moved a hand to where the necklace should be, panic flooding her eyes. "No no no! It must have fallen off after I fell!" She frantically began to seach the ground.
Serana pushed herself up, trying to ignore the pain, and helped her friend look. They found the necklace stuck in one of the small fissures that lined the Soul Cairn. Akiseta slipped it on, clutching it to her chest. She looked at Serana, then dug into her backpack, pulling out a shirt.
"Here. It might be a little bit big on you."
It crossed Serana's mind that she wasn't wearing a shirt. Just bandages and a bra. She was thankful for the bra. She took the shirt. "No worries. It'll be fine. Thanks." She wasn't sure why she felt so flustered. It wasn't like she was completely naked. And they were both women anyway.
The shirt was an open one, closed by small buttons, and tied up at the top by small strings. Because of her horns, Akiseta had trouble with simple slip-on shirts, so she opted for these. Serana found it was a little loose on her torso, and the sleeves were a little long, but it was fine.
Akiseta restrapped her pauldron to her shoulder, and Serana helped her repack her bag. Akiseta didn't have the strength to summon Arvak, so they began walking back to where Valerica was, hopefully, no longer imprisoned. They kept watch on the sky. The possibility of Durnehviir showing up made Serana anxious. With her injury, and Akiseta's current state, could they fight a dragon? Serana wasn't eager to find out.
The barrier was no longer surrounding the keep. Valerica smiled as Serana and Akiseta showed up. She rushed forward, embracing her daughter. Serana was happy to feel her mother's embrace after so long, but was unable to stifle a wince.
Valerica pulled away, looking at her with concern. "What's the matter?"
"We.. we had a little trouble." Serana said, She lifted up the shirt to show her mother the bandages.
"What happened?" Valerica looked to Akiseta, her concerned look deepening as she looked closely at Argonian. "What happened to you?"
Akiseta and Serana explained everything that happened from fighting the third Keeper. Valerica closed her eyes, rubbing her temple. Serana bit her lip nervously. The look on her face reminded Akiseta of the look Lucia got whenever she was in trouble, which was rare.
The idea of a centuries old vampire getting scolded by her even older mother was amusing. Some things never changed.
"Are you alright, Mother?" Serana asked.
Valerica sighed. "You both put yourselves in serious danger."
"We've been in danger since all this started." Akiseta pointed out.
"I'm well aware, but your actions added to it. Especially yours, Akiseta."
'She's scolding me? Seriously?'
"She did save my life, Mother."
"Yes, I know, and I'm grateful to her. I just want you two to be careful." Valerica looked to the sky. "Durnehviir could still show. We need to get you the scroll, and then get Akiseta's soul."
"I can get it back? Really?" Akiseta asked eagerly. She had begun to lose hope.
"Yes. There's an offering alter not to far from here. I'll show you where it is after I get you the scroll. Follow me." Valerica led them into an enclosed courtyard. Bone piles were scattered everywhere.
As they entered, Akiseta froze.
Serana looked at her, frowning. "What's the matter, Aki?"
Akiseta didn't respond. She swore she could feel something. It was unsettling, and yet eerily familiar, like something she'd always known. She felt this before.
A sound she knew all too well echoed in the sky. It was the roar of a dragon.