Chapter 9: Sightless Pit

[Second Seed 4E 207]

Once we had dropped into the hole, we found ourselves close to a pool of water with icy walls all around. A passage, or more a narrow tunnel, was heading off to the north, and we took that, once we had made sure that nothing of interest was around here. After following a few turns and passing some glowing mushrooms, the passage opened up into a larger cavern with a lit campfire and a few bedrolls around, and a few shelves and empty barrels were along one of the walls. The shelves held some supplies and lots of bottles, most of them empty, but no person was in sight at all.

The passage continued to the north, and when we had followed it for another ten minutes or so, we came upon another cavern and another campsite. In this cavern there were two corpses on the ground, and they looked like dead bandits. Both corpses had several Falmer arrows in them, so that the Falmer we already expected might not be too far away.

Another passage continued to the west, and we followed it once we had made sure not to miss anything important. A few turns later I almost stepped on a pressure plate, but managed to jump back just in time, pushing into Serana by accident. Rather than showing annoyance, she smiled and suggested to take the lead from now on, which I agreed to.

Serana was very good in sneaking, better than I was. I had cheated, though, and my boots were enchanted with a strong 'fortify sneak' bonus, and I also wore a ring with a similar enchantment; both of those added up to my natural sneaking capability, so that the result was at least close to what Serana could do. I was not sure if this was good enough to avoid Falmer attention, as the degenerated snow elves were almost blind and had superb hearing, but we would see.

My earlier jumping back, though, had alerted two Falmer, and they were approaching us now. Before I could react, an arrow hit my chest, but it was stopped by my armor. The Falmer did not get a chance to do anything else, because Serana was upon them now in an instant, and they were dead within seconds.

Following the path further we noticed that the walls started to change, and the natural rock gave place to walls of Dwemer origin and architecture. For some distance, a pipe ran along the passage, and once a Dwarven spider tried to intercept us. Eventually, the tunnel ended, and we overlooked a larger cavern from our position on a ledge. There was no clear path to continue from here, and I was unsure about what to do, when Serana told me:

"I guess that we're going to jump down from here, or do you see another option?"

I did not and told her so, but the drop was maybe ten meters or so, and I asked:

"Can you jump down there without getting injured?"

"Don't worry about me, but what about you?"

"I can, sure – okay, let's do it."

There really seemed to be no other way, and the vampiress jumped down easily and landed like a cat, without any problem. I jumped as well and shouted 'FEIM', which allowed me to hit the ground without getting hurt. Serana was clearly impressed, but we needed to pay attention to our environment now. Several Falmer had noticed our approach and attacked, which kept us busy for a few minutes.

Some Falmer, frostbite spiders, winding elevated walkways and traps later we managed to get to the ground and found a corridor heading west. After passing a crossroad, with the side passages being dead ends and having some chests with loot, we saw a larger gate which looked like the entrance to another section, and the gate was guarded by a large group of Falmer, spiders and chaurus. Serana told me:

"It had been a long time since I changed into my 'Vampire Lord' form. Can you please let me take care of that and watch from a distance?"

I nodded, curious what that was gong to be like, and she transformed herself into a really intimidating bat like vampire form with wings and all, like Lord Harkon had done when I had first seen him in Castle Volkihar, just that Serana looked more female and attractive, even in this form. Releasing her energy, the vampiress flew ahead into the group of enemies, and less than one minute later, the area was clear. Serana came back to me and hoovered in front of me for a minute or two, maybe to calm down, looking at me with dark red eyes. I noticed that she wore different armor in this form. Her Vampire Lord Armor was much more skimpy than her normal one, and she looked almost sexy in it. Wait – a vampire looking sexy? Really? Before I had a chance to contemplate this thought further, she changed back, and within seconds she was back in her normal body and her normal armor. That was apparently different from a werewolf transformation, where you had to be careful about shedding your clothes before changing in order to not get them shredded, and you turned back into a naked human being. This here was clearly more practical. Once Serena was fully her normal self again, she told me with a voice slightly different from normal:

"I need to careful to keep my actions under control – with that kind of energy in me, I really feel tempted to jump your bones and have my way with you. I don't know what that is; I have never felt like that for a non vampire before, and thinking about it, not even for a vampire."

I did not know exactly what 'have my way with you' was supposed to imply. I had heard the term a few times before, used between lovers in a sexual context, but surely she did not mean it like that? On the other hand, she had admitted to be attracted to me before. Maybe I should have been scared, but I wasn't, and I told her boldly:

"Maybe I would not mind having that done to me by you, if you really feel like this. You know, among us humans this is commonly referred to us a crush, and I assure you that this is mutual."

Her eye color was back to the normal mute orange, and she looked at me and stated boldly:

"Vampires do not have crushes."

"They don't? So what's your name for your feelings?"

"I do not know" she admitted after some hesitation. "My education was somewhat one sided, and that's one more reason to find my mother. Maybe she can help me to understand what's going on with my body."

"Your mother has been a vampire for longer than you, right?"

"Indeed, she has, and specifically, she was not frozen for centuries. We used to be close when I was younger, and I hope that we can still be close and have some mother-daughter talks when we meet; that would be real good."

I could relate to that, and I used to have some real good and helpful father-son talks when I had been a teenager; we even talked about women, although this kind of talk was a little awkward at times, but it was good to have my father at my side when I was younger. Consequently, I could well understand Serana՚s desire to spend more time with her mother, maybe making good for missed conversations they should or could have had earlier.

For now, we focused on our environment again, and once we had rested and eaten a little – well, I ate at least – we opened the large gate leading us into an area which Serana somehow sensed was called the 'Temple of Xrib'.

The tunnel we were in guided us through a few turns and eventually opened up into another cavern, with more Falmer and chaurus beasts waiting for us. This time, though, our sneaking prevented them from noticing us early, and I managed to get a few shots off with my crossbow; Serana took care of the rest.

The further we proceeded, the more Falmer tents and chaurus eggs we could see. Glowing mushrooms became common again on the walls, and we had to fight enemies after almost each corner. A few turns and passages later the tunnel ended and we found ourselves at the border of a huge underground cavern, dimly lighted.

I turned towards my companion and to her:

"This huge cavern reminds me of Blackreach. Have you ever been there?"

"No, I have not. What is that place?"

"Blackreach is a gigantic underground cavern, even larger than this one here, and I needed to go there to get the Elder Scroll I own, in order to summon Alduin. This place here is not quite as huge, but looks similar."

Some section of the ground level, as far as we could see, was occupied by Falmer tents, and close to what was probably the cavern's center, there was a huge stone structure with stairs leading up. We expected this structure to be our target, and getting there would not be possible without fighting; somehow I doubted that the Falmer would be willing to let us pass unmolested.

Serana looked at me and asked: "You don't mind if I feed from some of the Falmer, right?"

"No, of course not" I replied. "Take your pick; if they insist on attacking us, they are fair prey."

Serana went off, and I took the opportunity to eat from the supplies in my pack and rest for a few minutes. It did not take long for the vampiress to return, some drops of blood still hanging around her mouth, and she looked sated. As I was now done with my break, we moved on together in the direction of the center structure.

At first, there were no obstacles, as the Falmer who had patrolled here had been handled by Serana before. Later on, though, we encountered the occasional chaurus, and the bottom of the first flight of stairs were guarded by a whole group of Falmer. As the group was tightly packed together, I shouted my 'YOL TOOR SHUL' first, and afterwards the fight was much easier.

Eventually, after a few more fights, we reached the top of the stairs and found some kind of altar, and a group of sturdy chests were grouped around it. Before we could examine those, though, I saw some movement in an alcove, and a Dwarven Centurion started to wake up. I had encountered some of those before, like when making my way towards Blackreach, but I did not know if Serana was familiar with them. Right away the mechanism blew hot steam in my direction, and I quickly jumped to the side. Serana went into attack mode, but she found out that this apparatus was not so easily defeated, and even she had to evade the steam clouds and spring-loaded battleaxe attacks. However, the centurion was not very fast, and eventually I managed to jump on its shoulders and destroy the power source driving it, so that it collapsed to the ground.

While Serana examined the mechanism – obviously that had been her first encounter with them – I picked the locks on the chests and found a lot of loot. There were septims, armor, weapons, gems, and even some books. One specific set of books looked very much like Urag has described the missing Shalidor՚s scripts, and I pocketed those. There were almost no soul gems, though, so that we'd need to keep searching.

When we looked around, we noticed another set of stairs and what looked like a door in the opposite direction to where we had come from, so maybe there was another room to search. Meanwhile, more Falmer started to approach from various directions, so that I got myself busy with my crossbow for some time; after that trip I'd probably have to restock my supply of bolts. One Falmer arrow grazed my arm and managed to find one of the few spots not covered by armor. It was not poisoned, but a little bit of blood started to show and trickled down, and I could see it on the short fur on my lower arm. While I licked it up, I noticed Serana acting strangely. She seemed to tremble, and her eyes had suddenly changed color; while they usually had some muted orange tint, they now glowed bright golden, which I liked a lot. However, also her fangs showed now, and I did not really understand what bothered her. In addition, she also radiated an oddly pleasant smell, like a mix of lilies and something else I could not identify. Once I had managed to stop the blood from trickling on my arm, Serana slowly turned back to normal, and once I had given her some time to recover, I asked:

"Serana, do you mind letting me know what had just happened? Was there something which bothered you, or have I done something wrong?"

She hesitated to reply, but told me anyway:

"I do not really know, but I think that it was the smell of your blood. Smelling blood does sometimes trigger something in me, like showing my fangs, specifically when I am thirsty, but this was different; after all, I had just fed before."

"It sure was strange – your eye color turned golden, too!"

"My eyes got golden? I have no clue what that implies; another one of the topics my mother did not cover when I was a child, I guess. I know that my eyes turn from soft orange to red when I am fighting or feeding, but not golden. But anyway, the feeling was different. Normally, smelling blood triggers some aggressiveness, but this was different again; I just do not know how exactly."

"Different in a good or bad way?" I was curious.

"More good than bad, for sure" the vampiress replied. "Difficult to categorize, but very tempting and little bit like tickling, actually making me feel like I want more; quite odd."

Well, spending time with Serana was certainly not boring; maybe we'd find out about that at a later time. For now, with all Falmer and chaurus around us defeated, we made our way towards the door we had seen.

Once we had driven off more Falmer, we reached the door, picked the lock and passed through, entering another cavern section. We encountered some frostbite spiders and skeletons, and eventually we found another storeroom with shelves, barrels, and a couple of bandits. The latter were killed by Serana almost before they noticed something was wrong, and we looked at what we had found. Some of the barrels were empty or just had worthless junk in them, but one of them turned out be the jackpot, with a big load of soul gems of various sizes; some of them were empty, but lots of them were filled. That supply sure was going to make Sergius happy.

This cavern had a nice living area which had been occupied by the bandits, and although I did not know the time of the day, I was getting tired after all the exertion of the day.

"Look, I do not know about you, but I need some sleep. Is that all right for you?"

She nodded, and I dropped my bedroll; a few minutes after my body was horizontal I was asleep, resting with a vampiress watching over me.

Serana was very close to me, watching my face, when I woke up. She watched me preparing breakfast, and then we checked the area around us for more potential loot. After looking around and investigating each of the several passages leading on from the storage room, we finally found a way out, and a door allowed us to step outside again, where we found ourselves on a ledge directly overhead of the pit we had jumped into earlier. Rather than going down, though, a path lead upwards for a few meters, until we reached a small plateau with a platform and an altar on it. When we approached cautiously, a number of skeletons on the ground around the altar suddenly came to life and attacked, and we had to dispose of them before we could investigate the area. The altar did not show a specific designation, and there was not much to be found around it. One book was prominently placed on the altar, and the title was 'The Doors of Oblivion'. We left it in place and started our way back to the college.

On a whim we decided to take a different route, first going east rather than north, and thus we passed the Shrine of Azura. A few years ago I had aided the Daedric Princess Azura, Queen of Dawn and Dusk by finding and cleansing her artifact, 'Azura՚s Star'.

In Elsweyr, Azura was know as the goddess Azurah, the Mother of All Khajiit, She Who Sits at the Precipice and the Favored Daughter of Fadomai. It was said that Azurah knew the names of all the Khajiit that will ever live, and knowing her is the first step on their Path. The Khajiit believed that Azurah oversees the Gates of the Crossing behind the Lunar Lattice, a twilight realm between death and the afterlife. I did not claim to understand and believe all of that, but that's what I had been told during my education.

Anyway, we passed her shrine, and I was happy to see that a couple of priests were there serving the Daedric Princess. I imagined her voice again, recalling what she had told me when I had found and cleaned her star:

"You have done well, mortal. As was destined, you are free to use my star as you see fit. Farewell, and know that Azura will be guarding over the threads of your fate in the Twilight."

I had actually preferred to leave the cleaned star at the shrine, to be guarded by her priests. I did not like the idea to catch souls at all, and for some enchantments and refreshing them I either relied on experts or used filled soul gems I found.

From the shrine, we walked downhill to meet the main road close to Whistling Mine, and from there it only took us about two hours to get back to Winterhold. We arrived in Winterhold when it was already dark, and I needed some sleep.

On the next day, Serana and I found Sergius in his usual workplace, and I handed over the large supply of soul gems we had found. He smiled and congratulated us:

"Well, this is certainly much more than I had expected. Thank you so much, and I guess I owe you for that. As it happens, I was able to complete the enchantment on the hood – here you go!"

Serana got her hood back, and she hurried outside to find out how it worked. Meanwhile, I went to the library and dropped the books onto Urag՚s desk. He looked at them and told me:

"So, the books were actually there?"

"You mean that you did not really know?"

"You know how it is with those rumors, my friend" the Orc replied with a smirk. "But it is great that you found them, and I will get to translating them as soon as I can find the time."

I stepped outside to look for Serana, and I found her ambulating on the bridge, in full sunshine. She had her hood covering the head, and when she came back, she beamed:

"The enchantment is actually working! I can still feel the sun, but it almost does not bother me any longer – this is so great!"

I smiled at her, and then she suggested: "So, time to move on and go search for my mother, right?"

"I guess so, I think – let's start day after tomorrow, in the morning?"

"Not tomorrow?"

"Well, I'd like to have some time for conversation with the mages, if you don't mind."

I used the day in between indeed to talk to some mages, without Serana. While we talked about this and that, I also tried to find out if any of them had any experience with vampire behavior. Specifically related to reaction to blood and eye color changes, but it turned out that the mages were not the right source for that. Neither Colette Marence, the restoration specialist, nor Faralda or Mirabelle really had a clue, and I was not able to learn much what I had not known before. I just would have to trust Serana and hope that we could find her mother.

Tolfdir had left with the students – including Bella – towards Saarthal, and they'd be there for a few days or maybe a week. Well, a little bit of digging and searching would be a nice, but boring and uneventful change, I assumed.

On the evening just before the day when Serana and I wanted to move on, my brother came back from an excursion. He was a little bit surprised to see me, and we found a quiet corner to talk. He started:

"Ri'joshua, my big brother, it is good to see you."

"Same here, S'muel. So, you finally decided to move on and study magic as you had planned for some time?"

"Indeed I have. I have always been ashamed of my weak magicka, as you know, and I am glad that they have accepted me here. I have been hired as an instructor for martial arts, helping the students to train their bodies, and they allow me to joining some magic classes for free. On the side, I can also practice alchemy. But what about you? I have heard that you brought Bella to the college some time ago."

"Indeed I have, S'muel. How does she fit in here?"

"She's an odd and clumsy girl, but everybody seems to like her. She looks like a Nord, but lacks the Nord resistance to cold, and J'zargo teases her all of the time. But what brings you her today? Have you been looking for me?"

"No, I did not know that you were here already. I am on a different kind of quest right now. Do you mind if I introduce you to somebody?"

I went to get Serana and came back with her, and I had the pleasure to see my brother looking slightly scared. When I had done proper introductions and my brother had calmed down, she asked him:

"So, are you also in the Dragonborn business?"

"No not really, but I can also shout a little bit, as I have trained with the Greybeards for a few years. I have moved to the College recently, and currently I earn my living as a trainer for martial arts and also alchemy. The Arch-Mage understands that a healthy and strong body is also beneficial for a strong mind – 'mens sana in corpore sano', he calls it."

"Your brother has told me that Khajiit fur is not really suited well for the cold of Skyrim. How do you stand it?"

"Good question, my lady. I found an alchemist who helped to to mix a potion to make my fur grow denser, and this actually works. I am now about as resistant to cold as a typical Nord is, but not due to an inherent resistance, but due to my dense fur. The disadvantage is that I sweat a lot when I get into a warm environment, but this is quite rare in this area."

We talked a little more and then retired to our beds; well, maybe not Serana.

[Author's Notes: I have not observed Serana changing into 'Vampire Lord' form in the game, but she really should be able to do that.]