Chapter 1: Trust Set On Fire
Feet rustled through the destroyed detritus of the crypt. Serana looked up at the stalactites that hung from the cave ceiling when pebbles dropped on her, and took wide berths to avoid the ones that spelled mutilating impalement if they broke from their hold. She wrinkled her nose at the briny smell of slimy lichen and dusty bones.
"I can't wait to get out of here," Serana mumbled.
She kept her distance from the Nord woman who lead in front of her with reason. Sparks drifted upward and one of the mage's fingers glowed like an ember, where smoke drifted away from the magical fire serving as their lantern to illuminate the cave. The bright hot flame flickered like a mischievous tongue stuck out at her and it made her shiver. The mage was starkly quiet, with the crackling of her small flame the only sounds she made. She hooked her other arm on her elbow and cradled the hand that was crudely wrapped in bandages that were soaked with her blood. It dripped off her fingertips. Blood and fire. A vampire's treasured love and despised nemesis, so cruel to be so close together.
"Do you need to take a break?" Serana asked. "We should take a look at your hand."
"You're not the only one who can't wait to get out of here," came the tremulous reply, but the Nord gave a thin-lipped smile over her shoulder.
Serana returned it uneasily. "You heard that, did you?"
"It distracted me from the cursing in my head."
The mage swept debris off a small rock and sat on it. She extinguished her firelight to check her hand, where pain glowed in her eyes. Serana approached and held up her hands to show she was no threat when the pain-glazed eyes snapped to her in suspicion, and the mage cradled her hand closer to her body.
"Stay back, vampire, or else." A threat? As if she could hurt Serana. Not a fact that helps build rapport when pointed out.
"I'm not going to hurt you."
Serana was deliberate and slow in every move. With her dagger and fangs, she cut her cloak into long thin strips and offered them.
"We need to stop that bleeding. May I help?"
The mage's gaze dissected her. It fell when she shook her head and held her hand out, and Serana smelled fear. She bit back her sigh and tried not to take it personally or jump in her defence, not when she understood why the mortal was guarded. She smelled the bodies of other dead vampires the second she awoke from her tomb earlier. She stretched and leaned forward as far as she could to still keep a reasonable distance between their bodies. The sweet smell of blood tempted her. She turned around as soon as the woman grabbed the strips of her cloak and closed her eyes to focus on the cave's smells.
Stale air. Rotting vegetation. Animal musk and feces. Everything was pulling her nose to the tantalizing scent behind her to hide away from these horrid smells. She opened her eyes, took a deep breath, and counted as many stalactites as she could spot. Her senses heightened. The sounds of grunts and fabric whining when wound taut had roared in her ears.
"Done," the mage whispered with weariness, the word brittle as it struggled not to fall apart.
Serana turned around. The woman rooted in her spot as if sitting on a rock was going to protect her, but a small taut smile broke out with a silvery voice.
"Thank you."
She didn't offer anything more. She stood and jammed a hand in a fissure in the stone wall to help her climb up a steep hill. Crestfallen, Serana had a dour look, but respected the silence and followed without offering anything else herself. She kept her distance the second the flame burst to life on the mage's fingertip again. Serana didn't trust this mortal, and the fire didn't change her mind.
Bones rattled when kicked aside as they delved deeper, and the cave expanded majestically into what looked like a throne room. Serana's gaze honed in to the sounds that cracked by her ears, and she unsheathed her dagger when skeletons rose from their chairs. She summoned sparks and shot off bolts of energy at those closest to them. Shivers rolled down her spine when the mage launched balls of fire further down, and deafening explosions rocked the air. Serana kept close to the walls and shadows, caught off guard when the mage ran down to what seemed to be an impromptu arena of sorts. She lured the skeletons in and was nimble enough to evade their swings or their spikes of ice.
"What is she doing?" Serana grumbled under her breath.
It made her job harder with the woman bouncing about somewhat without prediction, and Serana stayed her spells. She was about to approach until a fireball was launched at the ceiling of stalactites, and they rained down on the arena while the mage sprinted away for dear life. Serana rushed down to the stairs to meet the Nord and clothed her mouth with her forearm. She shot off a bolt of sparks at a skeleton before it's sword licked the mage's back.
Dust and sand kicked up in a fury when the stalactites crashed. Metal shrieked and the gate buckled under the weight of the stalactites to the pit of fire and spikes. The wave of dust flew at them and Serana coughed even with her mouth covered. She rushed back up the stairs with eyes closed when they bit and stung from the debris, and the mage hacked and wheezed herself. When it settled, they both found themselves on their stomachs with cold stone digging into them. Exhausted, Serana turned her head and looked accusingly at the mage.
"Why did you do that? We would have been just fine picking them off with our spells."
"It seemed like a good idea," the mage coughed. "Until I fired the fireball at the ceiling. I was grouping them up to blow them away and decided to over-complicate it instead."
Serana chuckled, which made her choke on the dust caught in her throat. She rolled on her back and sighed.
"Glad to know you realized it was a bad idea before they started crashing down..." She trailed off, realizing she didn't know the Nord's name.
It wrought a sheepish laugh from the mage.
Serana looked when the woman pushed herself up onto her knees, where the sweet muted smell of blood pulled the vampire's gaze to the bandages. She forced herself away and kept a careful eye on the integrity of the cave ceiling. The last thing they needed was to be caved in, buried alive, or flattened if any large chunks fell on them.
"Hey." Serana fixated her eyes on the mage's face. "You still haven't told me your name, you know."
"You don't need to know." The quick and guarded reply plucked a nerve. "Just make one up."
"I've told you mine."
"You offered. I never asked for it." The mage groaned when she rose and her joints popped out of stiffness. Pebbles skipped down the stairs and bounced off the debris. "We both don't trust each other for obvious reasons. We don't need to pretend to be friends. I will be civil, but nothing more."
"Knowing each other's names is part of civility."
The mage didn't say anything. She cradled her bandaged hand as she descended the steps with caution. She stopped with a heavy breath.
"You ask for too much."
"That's too much? I'd hate to see what you consider too little."
The mage turned with a frown and held her injured hand up. "The only reason you're out of your tomb is because I unlocked your blood seal."
Serana's brows scrumped together. "Blood seal? What blood seal?"
"Exactly. I didn't know either."
This wasn't making any sense, and these roundabout answers were irritating. Serana pushed the boundary and employed her powers with the little strength she had recuperated since awakening, appearing in front of the mage in the blink of an eye. She grabbed the Nord's forearm and cast a severely chilling aura to starve the oxygen out of any attempt to conjure fire, the predicted response. Trickles of heat were demolished in the face of her cold.
"Let me go!" The mage yelled with a tug and failed to break free. "After all I've done, you-!"
"I'm not going to hurt you."
Serana kept a steely grip and inspected the injured hand. She cast a light frosting of ice to coat the bandages.
"There. That should help with the pain and to slow the bleeding some more."
She tried to get a sense of the injury from where fresh blood was trickling out of, and it disturbed her to find that it was on both sides of the hand. It hadn't shocked her when the mage wedged distance between them as soon as she was released, but at least she wore confusion and suspicion rather than anger. The mage studied the ice coating her bandages and turned around.
"Thank you," the mage mumbled, looking a little guilty and embarrassed. She took the lead and navigated the debris on the way out of the cave and Serana was close behind.
"You're welcome."
Serana waited, and waited, but she didn't get what she wanted. Did she have to spell everything out?
"So... Can I know your name now?"
Irritation glossed over and threatened her calm when the mage shot a smirk over.
"You offered. I never agreed to tell you my name in exchange for this."
Serana groaned. "Is it truly that hard for you? I've proven myself that I mean no harm and that I'm no enemy."
"You also were quick to point out to the one who freed you that you don't trust me. Don't think I'll be manipulated so easily."
"I'm not..." Serana sucked in a breath. She dropped it, because she could maybe kind of see the point the Nord was making about trust. "Never mind."
She glanced over her shoulder before she followed the mage out. Smoke smouldered out between the cracks of the crashed stalactites in the fire pit. The skeletons in there were going to be little more than dust, with time. May their ashes rest in peace with their souls now.
Blood, and fire, and ashes. It gave her an idea.
Serana pushed through the aches in her bones and met the mage outside the cave, where the snow howled and blew across the banks, and whirls swept around in crescent patterns. The crunch of snow beneath her boots and the clean ozone-like smell of fresh air lifted her spirits. Winds carried the smells of carrions and briny open water, but the chill that even she could feel brought her attention to the mage who was less than adequately dressed, with a sash around the hips being the only coverage for exposed flesh at the mercy of being rubbed raw and sliced by the wind burn.
The mage may have bore the features of a Nord, a short one compared to the typical standard, but even the hardiest of Nords weren't foolish enough to bare all in Skyrim's frozen tundra. Serana was about to voice her flabbergasted concern, but was caught off guard when she swore she saw specks of steam being carried away from the mage's skin and into the winds. She was the embodiment of fire, but not. With all their interactions so far, she was more the embodiment of the results of fire, in Serana's opinion.
"Ashes," Serana blurted.
The mage turned, confused. "What?"
"That's my name for you. Ashes."
Ashes' fruity laughter danced in the air. Her good hand became a beacon of fiery light in the tundra, the contrast to the monotone colours of the sky and land.
"I like it."
Serana smiled with hope.
Silvery hues bathed the scarce woods they took shelter in, where the moon shone through a lattice of frost crystals coating skeletal tree branches. Logs clunked together when Ashes rearranged them and snapped twigs to feed her campfire.
Shivers rolled through Serana every time the Nord was able to stick her good hand directly in the flames to move the sticks wherever she wanted them to be. It must have been quite the treasured boon to not be harmed by one's own magic. Gamy wild meat cooked on a stick, propped by stones beside the fire. The smell grew enticing and Serana's throat tightened in anticipation. She redirected her focus on the pine boughs weighed down with snow and the occasional call of a duck, or the howl of a wolf. The silence was killing her. Even in the company of someone, she felt lonely. Life hadn't changed much.
Desperate to fill and kill the silence, Serana grabbed one of the sticks with the rarest-looking meat and dared sit as close as she could tolerate the campfire's warmth.
"That one hasn't cooked through yet," Ashes said. "You should wait to be safe, or it might make you sick."
"Vampires are immune to disease." Serana shrugged and bit into the spongy meat.
Truth be told, it was what leaked out and filled her mouth that she had wanted. She closed her eyes to focus and enjoy the natural spice of the wild meat and blood. She didn't dare bring up the question to ask if Ashes mentioned the rarity of the meat out of concern, or if there was some other motive at play. Hopefully this tip-toeing around wouldn't last forever or this was going to be a very long trip. What was probably an hour at best between the two felt more like an entire year has already passed since Serana's awakening in the tomb.
Serana scooted closer away from the campfire when embers popped and peppered at her. Her eyes dried and teared a little from the heat and smoke, and her throat felt scratchy from it all. She tried not to make her own reasons overtly obvious because of the way Ashes would look at her with suspicion. When she moved, the mage caught her off guard with a sheepish smile and waved a hand over the flames, where they heeded her call and shrunk a little, sparks spitting less vigorously. Ashes grabbed a stick of meat herself and they ate in awkward silence.
Anticipation came and went again. Serana slowed her chewing so that it wouldn't ring in her ears and kept eye-contact in hopes it would propel the mage to say something, anything. Nothing happened. She could understand why, sort of. Mortals were sooner to run away from vampires, not dine with them. She watched the flames with disappointment, but often stolen glances to study the woman across her.
Ashes had removed the few pieces of armour she wore, but everything was either beside her or between her feet. With her pauldrons removed, Serana noticed something peculiar for a mage that has so far shown to rely only on magic as a tool. Her shoulders were defined and roped with muscle, where they twinged down the arm whenever she manoeuvred the stick of meat to bite it at a different angle. Her eyes met Serana's for a second before they fleeted away to the food. She didn't seem fond of eye contact. Was she nervous of Serana's presence, or overall shy?
"It's weird to eat with you staring," Ashes murmured.
Serana wanted to groan over the agony of this 'conversation'. "Sorry," she mumbled instead.
She stopped staring. It didn't mean she stopped stealing glances. Her gaze wandered to the bandaged hand, where she tried to imagine what kind of blood seal was in place that may have not been immediately obvious of what it was, and what it demanded tribute for. It was clever of mother to have concocted one, and even more so what it was powered by. Did it require only mortal blood, or could the blood of a vampire also unlock the seal? She guessed mortal, but it would not stop father from kidnapping an innocent or using a thrall's blood instead. Maybe she would find out someday. How did Ashes feel about this all? A roundabout question might yield a more promising answer if the mage didn't know what kind of answer was expected, to give it in a roundabout manner again.
"How's your hand?" Serana asked, and made sure to keep her gaze glued to the threads of meat clinging to her stick.
"It hurts."
This was the part where silence would work for Serana, instead of against her. She maintained her staring at her food and waited for Ashes to be moved to fill the silence and offer more insight, but all she offered was the smacks of her chewing the meat.
Right.
Okay.
That failed.
Serana sighed. "It would be a lot less painful if we were a little more than civil."
"Hm... You think so, Lady Serana?" Ashes hummed.
It was the first she finally used the vampire's name. She met Serana's eyes and kept it. The mage's face was serious, but there was a playful curl to her lips. She held up her hand to her face and stared at it, flexing her fingers. Pain struck across her eyes. She looked back at Serana with a shrug.
"Nope. Still hurts."
Wonderful. She must have thought she was being so cute and clever. That her definition of being a little more civil meant using Serana's name was disheartening, and the vampire finally gave up. She didn't need this and she was going nowhere with this. She tossed her stick into the fire and rose from her seat, adjusted the way the Elder Scroll sat on her back, and embarked to leave the woods.
"Where are you going?" Ashes asked.
"Home. It's clear you don't want to have anything to do with me. Thank you for all you've done leading up to this point, but it's best if we part ways here."
"I never said I don't want to have anything to do with you."
Serana stopped at the treeline and shot a frown over her shoulder. "You don't have to say it when your every action screams it."
Ashes' mouth opened to protest, but it remained opened without protest. Realization seemed to strike and her features softened. She sighed and tossed her stick aside, her hand cutting across the air. The flames died suddenly and all that was left was smoke and ashes as evidence it ever existed in the first place. She rose from her stump and brushed the snow off her sash.
"I'm sorry that I came off that way," Ashes sighed. "But understand, every vampire I've ever met has tried to kill me. I'm not going to be friendly to one at the snap of my fingers. If my being cautious has offended you, then I apologize, but I will not feign what I do not feel or lie about my feelings. I do not trust you. That's fact. But it is also fact that you do not trust me."
Serana crossed her arms. "At least I'm making the effort of trying to."
"Alright, then." Ashes held out her hand. "If you're trying to, then give me the Elder Scroll for a second."
That made the vampire dig in. She shook her head sternly. "No."
"You can't trust me for one second?"
"You give me no reason to."
"Have you given me reason to?"
"I've helped you bandage your hand when I could have drained you of your blood if I was like every other vampire."
"The hand that's injured because I freed you from your enclosure, and despite that, I still helped fight on our way out of the cave. My existence does not threaten you the way yours threatens me."
"Is that so? I have fangs. You have fire."
"We're providing reasons not to trust each other now. And they're not just reasons. They're facts."
Serana was irritated by the smile that made itself more obvious on the fire mage's face. She didn't give the satisfaction of an obvious answer, and left Ashes behind. Her name was perfect for her. Instead of setting things ablaze, she set trust on fire and left the embers to smoulder into dust. The hope Serana felt before had extinguished. Her only mission now was to get home as soon as possible, and she was going to be just as cautious as the mage now. There's an unspoken reason why Ashes was following along.
It was fact that it wasn't out of the kindness of her heart.