-Interlude - Shades of the Past-

The icy air, the ever-present gloom. Jeziasi growls softly as her eyes shift from mer to the golden glow of the wolf. "That's new," Jeziasi turns to the familiar voice. Virgar, a vampire she had met in the assault in Coldharbour those many years ago. She had been tasked with killing them, for they had been under Molag Bal's control. Instead when this vampire had come to her and offered her a different solution... Jeziasi had taken it and earned their help against the Daedric Prince. "You are safe here," Virgar says sensing her unease. "The cave is protected. Not for long, but long enough. He will not know you are here. We owe you our lives, we would not betray you."
Jeziasi struggles with the wolf and her eyes at last fade back to the crystal of the mer. "Why?" Jeziasi simply asks.
"Someone seeks to speak with you," Virgar says and turns to the shadows, and another vampire moves from the shadows. "Count Verandis," Virgar says and then moves to the cave entrance. "I will leave you to it. But be warned, your time is not unlimited." With that warning in place, Virgar walks out.
Jeziasi studies Count Verandis. "I do not know you," Jeziasi says.
"No," Count Verandis says as he studies her in turn. She was not what he had expected. But then again, Viperish Night was not a normal Argonian. What he had learned in the end about him...that he never had the chance to tell the young necromancer. "You are Viperish Night's Egg-mother," Count Verandis states. "Dark magic must have been involved in his making."
Pain flares in Jeziasi's eyes and then she narrows them as fury replaces it. "Just who are you? What do you want with my son?" The last words come out nearly at a growl and Count Verandis steps back slightly.
"You are a werewolf," Count Verandis says. "To answer your question, I knew Viperish Night once, years ago in Rivenspire. The young necromancer I met...he was misguided but not a monster. I would have said he never would have done this but near the end...I realized what he was. Molag Bal sired me so of course I would know his progeny, even masked such as it was at the time." Count Verandis pauses and then meets Jeziasi's gaze. "I tried to tell him but I ran out of time."
All vampires return to Coldharbour when they fall. The vampire allies Jeziasi had during the war were such. "You died," Jeziasi says.
Count Verandis nods. "Such the price I paid for saving Rivenspire. A small price to pay." Again he regards Jeziasi in slight puzzlement. "The Dunmer I talked to in Coldharbours dungeon called you a hero, The Vestige. The wars were still raging when I was called back to Coldharbour and there was a time of...darkness before I became myself again," Count Verandis tells her. "When I woke it was over. Because of you."
Jeziasi flinches slightly then folds her arms against her chest. "That was a long time ago," Jeziasi says, a lost look in her eyes. "I made a grievous mistake after and...all of this is a result of that one mistake."
"And yet you stand with Viperish Night," Count Verandis says.
"The one thing I do not regret," Jeziasi says. "I was more lost after the wars than I ever admitted. It led to my fall. But it also lead to Viperish Night. I love him, and I will stand by his side until the end. This...should not have been his life."
"And yet it is the result," Count Verandis says. "You will continue this, even at the cost of Nirn?"
The pain and despair in Jeziasi's eyes is all too clear. Hiding it is an impossibility after the events of the night. After everything, when the end was far to close. "You are saying nothing I have not heard before. I am foolish, I am lost, I am mad. Nothing save for death will keep me from his side. He is far more than the monster Molag Bal wants, than the world sees. Now, what do you want?"
This pauses Count Verandis. He had wanted to speak to Viperish Night, but meeting his Egg-mother, seeing the depths of love in her eyes...and knowing even she fails to bring him from his path of death. Nothing he could say to Viperish Night, even if he could speak to him, would alter the course of events. "I wanted to know the truth of it," Count Verandis admits. "Talk to him if I could, but Molag Bal prevents it. And it is clear nothing I could say would reach him." Count Verandis moves closer to Jeziasi, his hand moving toward a pocket in his robe. "Viperish Night is not the first progeny of Molag Bal, but perhaps the first to be created this way. Mortal with a mortal's soul. And yet he is corrupted by Daedric essence. I have sought a way to help but...it is clear there is little I can do to help. My hands are bound, as I am bound here." Count Verandis withdraws a vial and holds it out to Jeziasi who stares at it before taking it.
Jeziasi brings the vial up to her nose and sniffs it and then stares at Count Verandis. "Blood, mixed with other things," Jeziasi says. "Your blood. Why give me this?"
"Because it is all I can offer you," Count Verandis says. "It is a Dream-walk potion. If you decide to use it, it will not harm you. You will walk through a few of my memories. When I met your son, and how he was before all this. Perhaps something in them will aid you one day. Perhaps not."
Jeziasi's eyes widen as she stares deep into Count Verandis's eyes then back at the vial. Time she never had, Viperish Night before the madness and pain consumed him. Time seems to pause for a moment before Jeziasi carefully puts it in a pouch on her belt. "Once, I ignored who I could trust and who I could not. You... I can trust." Jeziasi says. "That is what the wolf tells me, and I tend to listen to my wolf these days."
Before Count Verandis can speak again Virgar returns. "The magic is fading. You have to leave soon, Vestige." The portal shimmers into existence behind Jeziasi and she turns toward it. "Jeziasi," Virgar says and Jeziasi turns to look at her. "We will help the souls your son is sending here if we can. And if we can help the Dunmer...do you want us to?"
Jeziasi briefly closes her eyes as a shudder of pain passes through her. "Leave her where she is," Jeziasi says. "She is a threat to my son. But after all this is over...however it ends...help her if you can then." Jeziasi moves toward the portal and then looks back at Count Verandis. "...Thank you." Jeziasi whispers. "I swim for the Viperish Night you knew. He's still in there. I feel as if I am close to reaching him, to ending this in a better way than it may end. If..." Jeziasi trails off and turns her head away. "I hate that word." Jeziasi starts to walk toward the portal but a growl echos from the cave wall and she turns to it, as does Count Verandis and Virgar.
"Wait," the growl commands, and a powerful Khajiit steps from the gloom, his dark brown fur blending into the shadows, his crimson vampiric eyes glowing slightly.
Jeziasi studies him carefully. "...Your Za'gh." she asks. One of the gladiators her son fought with, one who fell to his darker nature in the end. At the Khajiit's nod, Jeziasi continues. "Viperish Night told me of Oblivion's Isle...but not before that." Jeziasi's eyes flash with pain, she knows why Viperish Night rarely speaks of before. For before is all the things he had, or could have. All the paths he could have taken...until all that was stolen from him.
Za'gh regards Jeziasi in turn and then stalks up to her, his gaze never leaving hers. "This one heard the count and our mistress speak." Za'gh's eyes glow brighter as a growl reverberates through him. "Did you abandon him?"
"It was done in such a way I never even knew he existed," Jeziasi answers. "I wish different. The time we should have had...we will never have now."
Za'gh falls silent at her answer before he speaks again. "What Viperish Night is doing, perhaps Nirn deserves it. They make us monsters, then laugh when we slaughter for them. Not so amusing when the monsters break our bonds and turn on them now is it?" Za'gh growls again and then continues. "But it should not be Viperish Night doing this. He rose above his monster. What this one could never do."
Za'gh had died in the arena before Viperish Night started to slip again before the torture and pain consumed him. "Pain beyond enduring, breaking beyond restoration, madness despair hatred and rage," Jeziasi says. "He did not break on his own. I will help him kill who did this to him, and then I will help him if he wishes to cease. If he wants to try to come back. Even if it proves impossible, for so many reasons I am powerless to change." Jeziasi moves closer to Za'gh. "Once I saw monsters just as that. Something to hunt and destroy for Nirn. Now? I know the depths of it. What it means to break, what it means to go down the darkest river for it seems the only course. I went down it for Viperish Night. For it was the only way I could be with my son. I decided I was done killing monsters for Nirn if it meant I would have to kill him."
"You chose to be a monster," Za'gh says. "Za'gh had no choice. This one thought Viperish Night was more like you. That he could choose, but he was more like Za'gh." Za'gh's head falls. "This one hoped Titumus could have pulled him back, Viperish Night was better than this one was. Deserving of saving."
Jeziasi slowly reaches out and takes Za'gh's paw. "Some monsters deserve to be saved," Jeziasi says quietly. "Even if they think they don't deserve it, even if they think they are abominations. How could I ever see Viperish Night, or you, as monsters who should be put down? When both of you was turned into monsters against your will, against your river? Once I would have, but now..."
"Now you seek to save the monsters," Za'gh says, curling his paw around Jeziasi's. "This one fears it will destroy you as well as Viperish Night."
"I will drown with him if it comes to it," Jeziasi says.
"That may be the fate of all us monsters," Za'gh tells her. "This one sought the quiet of death, but this one still exists. Cruel fate...but there are those here who help this unworthy one." Za'gh releases her hand and looks at Jeziasi with a fierce glare. "Do not tell Viperish Night you spoke to this one. He hoped Za'gh would travel to The Sands Behind The Stars. But Molag Bal's curse is soul deep." Za'gh turns and starts to walk away then pauses. "You remind this one of his mother... such fierce love when it comes to your cub. Viperish Night is fortunate to know such love." With those last words, Za'gh walks out and is gone.
Jeziasi stares at him for a moment before turning to the portal, giving Virgar and Count Verandis one last look before passing through the portal.

-Skyrim Tomb-
Jeziasi walks to her room and sits on the pile of bedding, the vial in her hands. She holds it up to the lantern's light yearning in her eyes. At last, she decides and yanks the stopper out with her teeth and downs it. The world spins and she lies backward as her eyes close.

It is daytime, yet the sky is overcast with the threat of storms ever-present. Jeziasi looks up and then puts a hand to her head as the world spins. And that just makes the disorientation far worse. It is not her hand she is using. Not her head she is touching. Jeziasi stares at the hand, it moves as she wills it, but it is the hand of Count Verandis. Jeziasi puts it down and starts to walk until she feels the need to pause. Standing in the shadows of a rock her eyes fall upon one of the strangely stunted trees Rivenspire is known for...and under it sits Viperish Night. But not as he is now...as he was. Far younger and more relaxed than she has ever seen him. Jeziasi edges as close as the dream lets her and just watches the younger Viperish Night. His gaze is focused on a rabbit some distance away from him. Slowly Viperish Night reaches his claws out and after a moment's hesitation, the rabbit hops to Viperish Night's outstretched hand and nuzzles the claws. A smile appears on Viperish Night's face as more rabbits stir from their underground burrows to come see what has called one of their own forth. Soon Viperish Night is surrounded by rabbits, a smile of pure happiness on his face as he gently pets the rabbits who nuzzle his scales for attention.
Jeziasi just watches and as her eyes move from the rabbits to Viperish Night's eyes...yes there is a hint of the darkness to follow but it is the barest shadow. A trace of memory not her own comes to her. Count Verandis had met Viperish Night before this, wondered if he should approach him further or not. He knew Viperish Night was a necromancer but sensed no evil intent from him. Still, there was trouble in Rivenspire and it did not need more. Count Verandis had intended to approach Viperish Night and warn him away from Rivenspire, threaten to turn him in if need be, but instead had come upon this strange sight. Adusa-daro had told him of similar behaver, but to see it for himself, a necromancer acting this way. Count Verandis had decided to instead approach Viperish Night a different way, to ask for his help.

Everything goes black for a moment and then the darkness fades to reveal a moonlight night. A young child is huddled by a tree as a blood-fiend advance on him, growling with madness and unnatural hunger. A flash of shadows from the night and Viperish Night stands before the boy and with a flash of his hand, his staff erupts in flame burning the blood fiend to ash. Viperish Night's eyes stare into the darkness for more, but the night, at last, falls peaceful once more and the sound of crickets returns. Viperish Night turns to the boy who's looking up at him with scared yet amazed eyes at his unusual rescuer. A shout from a nearby house has Viperish Night melting into the shadows as the boy's parents run to their son.
Once more, Count Verandis's thoughts come to Jeziasi. Count Verandis had approached the town as it was set upon by Blood fiends from a nearby cave, but Viperish Night had been there first, as he was assisting Count Verandis in eradicating the nests. Count Verandis had seen Viperish Night's necromancy, but with the presence of living people, Viperish Night had only used fire magic and not a trace of the dark powers he possessed inside him. Jeziasi only has a moment to absorb this before the memory continues and Viperish Night moves to the hill in which Count Verandis watches.
"You could aid many this way, Viperish Night." Count Verandis tells the young necromancer as he gestures to the small town Viperish Night saved.
Viperish Night's head turns toward the town. "The dead call to me," Viperish Night hisses. "My mentor is teaching me. I need to control it. I cannot do it if I ignore it."
Count Verandis studies Viperish Night. "You could surrender it. Necromancy is a dark path that some chose to venture down in search of knowledge and power. Why did you?"
Viperish Night's eyes flicker to Count Verandis as the moons shine overhead. He tilts his head as if he's trying to decide if he should hide this. His mentor would bid him to. But...the world was far larger than Viperish Night had known. And far darker...but sometimes... "I did not choose this," Viperish Night finally says. "It has always chased my tail. I was always told never to use it when I was younger." Viperish Night's head drops. "I was cast from home because of it. Because I am very very different. And I did not make myself this way."
Count Verandis is silent for a few long moments. Regarding if Viperish Night speaks truth, how can this be truth? But one thing he has learned about the young necromancer was he was honest to a fault and very very naive and innocent about many things. "I think you need more than this mentor of yours to help you," Count Verandis says. "I will need to think on this, to see why you are different. But if I can help you, I will. House Ravenwatch is for vampires who want a more peaceful path, but we could find a place for you if you wish it."
Viperish Night hisses and turns his back. "My mentor would be mad at me if I did that." Viperish Night says. "He...is all I have."
"Still, I offer." Count Verandis tells him. "The offer will always be open for you." Count Verandis frowns. "You need to be sure of who you trust, Viperish Night. You have no deception within you, it is refreshing. But it could lead to you being hurt."
Viperish Night glances back at Count Verandis with a small nod and then walks off into the night.

Again blackness takes hold and when it fades Jeziasi finds herself in a bedroom watching as a Khajiit vampire cares for Viperish Night. He's unconscious and covered in so very much blood and wounds. The Khajiit is gentle with him, washing the blood from his scales and treating his injuries. As the last wound is bandaged the Khajiit vampire rises and faces Jeziasi, or rather Count Verandis. "Adusa-daro has treated him, but this one is curious," Her eyes look at Viperish Night and then back to Count Verandis. "He should be dead. He lost more blood than a mortal can lose and still survive, Count Verandis. And he is not infected. The blood fiends infection rate is so high...and yet with this many bites, he is uninfected, and healing far too fast." Adusa-daro gathers her supplies and walks out of the room, glancing back at Count Verandis who has remained silent a puzzled expression on his face. "This is not a normal mortal, Count Verandis. The trouble he could get into. Take care of him, this one thinks." and with that, she leaves Count Verandis to his thoughts.
Jeziasi stares down at Viperish Night as Count Verandis's thoughts come to her. Count Verandis studied Viperish Night, going over all he knew of the young necromancer. The immunity to vampirism, the impossibility of survival when he had lost far too much blood. The sheer power Viperish Night wielded, also impossible for such an untrained mage. And what Viperish Night had told him. That necromancy was innate within him. Impossible. "Forgive me," Count Verandis says. "I would ask your permission for this, but I fear time is short." Count Verandis moves to Viperish Night and his finger trails one of Viperish Night's scales, blood that Adusa-daro had missed. Count Verandis studies it and then in a quick movement licks his finger. It only takes a moment for realization to cross his face. "Viperish Night, you are mortal. And yet..." Count Verandis trails off. He knows the taint that Viperish Night's blood has shown him. The taint of Coldharbour, of the blood of the Prince of Domination. But Viperish Night is not a vampire. Viperish Night is altogether something different...something that should perhaps not be. Count Verandis frowns and then turns. The situation in Rivenspire will need him, soon. And if Viperish Night woke in time, he would instruct Adusa-daro to send Viperish Night to help. He would tell Viperish Night what his blood had revealed after the battle. And he would help the young necromancer. For there was light in him as well as darkness. If lead astray...his father's influence would destroy the light. And Nirn may very well pay the price.
The world once more fades to black.

Jeziasi's eyes slowly open and she sits up. The things she never knew. The part of Viperish Night's life that she had never asked about for it was before the island, before his fall. When he was something other than he was, when he still had hope of being what he wanted, swimming the river his heart lead him to. The Viperish Night that could call to nature and treat what came so gentle. So naive and so alone that he thought he had to follow Mannimarco even when his heart knew what he was doing was perhaps wrong. The hero within him that risked his life to stop the blood fiends, to save people, to save Rivenspire. And a man, a vampire of all things, that might of helped him if he had not been ended before he could. Jeziasi lowers her head and slowly shudders. It was so very hard to see who Viperish Night was, just how much had been stolen from him...but it also was a gift. And perhaps it would help someday. Knowing this. Knowing that Viperish Night was, at last, trying to alter the course of the river. She could tell from his eyes he thought he would fail, as he had always failed...for Molag Bal always made sure he would. If they could take him off the board...perhaps. Jeziasi closes her eyes. Hope...was a frail thing. It hurt more than hopelessness. Because the end was near and it still seemed impossible for it to end in any other way than death. But still...Jeziasi held onto that fragile gem. Jeziasi lies back down in the bed as sleep starts to take her. The last thoughts she has before she sleeps is Viperish Night in a field surrounded by all manner of creatures, peace upon his face.