DAWNGUARD
There was almost a fight right when we walked through the gate. Almost. I just dropped the coffin and said, "I'm the leader of the Dark Brotherhood and I'm here on business. I'm not here to kill anyone." Yet.
"That's the business the Brotherhood does!" A man in whitish robes yells. He's in a defensive position ready to attack. The other man, a very brawny and tall Redguard stands with his arms crossed. Completely content. A true warrior, not making the first move. Afterall, I never showed signs of a threat.
He laughs deeply, "Don't tell me you're here to join the Dawnguard, vampire."
The façade is over, so I pull off my Nightingale mask. The man in white robes gasps. He holds up his weapon, fury written all over his face.
"What's your problem? I'm not here to kill anyone, I don't actually like being a vampire that much."
"Interesting," the warrior purrs. The man in white continues to inch closer. Cicero gets between us, his own blades raised.
"I think you and I know we don't want blood spilled today, vampire." Spits the warrior.
"Nope. Strictly here for business."
"Not the kind of business that includes feeding from our necks?" White-robed man argues. Thorny one he is.
"No. I'm sure you've heard of the Dark Brotherhood by now."
"Yes," Warrior says, "You've caused quite a stir. Your associates have done some good with dealing with those damn vampires and that killing of the Emperor is disputable. But those sixty or so people butchered along Skyrim? All in the name of blood? Why shouldn't we smite you where you stand?" His expression is tense. I see his fingers itching for a blade.
"That's the thing. It wasn't me." I signal to Cicero and we both open the wooden casket. White-robed man gasps. The warrior inches closer to peer in. "I was framed. This is a vampire who framed me, tried to kill me just a few days ago. She had this." I hand the warrior the necklace, he takes it almost like it would burn his hands.
"Vampires have been attacking me saying their master wants me dead. Know who that might be?"
The warrior is silent. The whit-robed man paces around the coffin, taking in all the details. "There is a vampire menace," The Redguard begins. "But the truth is, we don't know who is causing this or what they want. This gem is suspicious, might I keep it?"
"We don't want it so, sure. Any clues on where to find this person?"
He ponders for a second. "There is a cave up north that has a band of vampires. You could wipe that out for us. Take one of them and maybe interrogate them, that's what your institution does right?"
"That, among other things." I glance back down at the vampire. An idea is forming.
"Alright. If you could clean it out, we would be grateful. The fight against the vampire menace would be in our favor. Take this, as a trade." He hands me a friggin crossbow. I take it, along with the bolts and hand both to Cicero.
"I'm more than capable with what I have but my partner will find good use." I eye him, letting him know if any bolt comes my way, I'll flay him alive. Cicero just smiles like a cat that ate the canary.
"Go then. And take the body with you." The warrior crosses his arms again. "Remind me your name."
"Eve." Not sure if I should shake his hand but he's not offering.
"Pleasure to be acquainted with you, Eve. I am Isran and when the Dawnguard is up and running you might want to watch your back." I think it's a joke, but his expression is still serious.
I smirk as I pull the coffin shut, time for another trip down the mountain. "I already do."
"No help! No help at all Mother!" Cicero snarls. He stalks ahead of me, which is good. He's been kicking rocks in his rage.
"They gave me a cave to exterminate."
"Not the same as a target, Listener! Someone who I can keep my eyes on! Hear their heartbeat in the silence! Where is any of that?" He looks back with madness in his gaze.
"You're in luck, I have an idea. Got a heart and a knife?"
His eyes light up. "The Black Sacrament? Oh, Listener you are clever!"
We found another cave. Taken over by two bandits. Didn't take long to dispose of them and cut out one of their hearts. Cicero somehow found a collection of candles. We light them in a circle. In the center lays the body of the dead vampire, a bloody heart next to her and a knife and whatever else Cicero says we need.
"It needs to be this way! This way Listener!" He moves some of the pieces around until the body is centered. The knife now at her side. "This is how it is performed! Now, Listener, allow me to perform it. I don't think you can." He smiles all proudly. I wave a hand at the monstrosity of a sacrifice on the floor and make myself comfortable on the edge of a desk. On the far side of the room. Closest to the exit. Can never be too careful.
"Sweet Mother, sweet Mother," Begins Cicero, his voice is concentrated, "Send your child unto me, for the sins of the unworthy must be baptized in blood and fear."
A pulse of magic rises, I feel it in my bones. The call to me. "Good, I feel it. Now ask for the perpetrator."
"Find me, Mother, the one who commanded this vampire. Let us smite them in their glory!"
Magic rises, a black cloud from the vampire body. It wafts across the room and surrounds me.
It will be done. The man is marked for death. Go to Dimhollow Crypt. The one you seek is locked away.
"You're sure? You're not keeping anything else from us?" I cross my arms.
I learn when you do. Go to the crypt.
"What is Mother saying?" Cicero turns to me, "Another fight between the two of you?"
"No." I growl, "Not right now. We have a fragile peace going on. She wants us to go to Dimhollow Crypt. Must be the cave Isran was talking about."
"A vampire fight?" Cicero smiles.
"Yes. First we need to go back to the Sanctuary and tell the others." I move to the cave entrance.
"And the body?" He looks to the empty coffin with disdain.
"We'll let someone else find it and wonder."
On the way home, in a nice dry carriage, Cicero fell asleep for once. I took the time to do something I haven't done in awhile. It was hard to write the letter, but I got the message down.
3rdof First Seed, 4E 202
Dear Bryn,
First of all, I'm safe. I'm happy you weren't with me. Things got worse. As I'm sure you've seen it looked like I was killing random people across Skyrim. But that person who was impersonating me is now dead. However, she had a master. Someone sent her to kill me and I need to investigate it. Don't look for me. I will find you soon.
Love you,
Eve
I felt a pang of guilt finishing the letter. He's sent so many to me so far. All are left unopened. I didn't have enough time to read them with recent events. But he needed to hear from me. If the tables had turned and he disappeared on me without a word, left me worrying for his safety, I'd be pissed off too. So, I can't be a hypocrite like Cicero thinks I am.
Your lover will appreciate it. The Night Mother says.
Never had her chime in on my romantic life before. Aside from threatening to kill him. I stay silent and toy with the ring on my left hand. It hasn't budged an inch.
"You sure you don't want us?" Nazir asks. We all sit around the wooden table in the Sanctuary, each with a mug full of ale made by Nazir himself. Sounds like he was getting bored.
I take a moment. I've never seen them in combat before. I'm sure they're quite capable, but if anyone is wanting to take out the Brotherhood all at once, this would be the way. "At least one of us needs to stay. You decide who."
"I, for one, don't want to see my kind right now." Babette turns a page in her picture book. I get the feeling she likes her alone time.
"Fair enough, do you want to come with us Nazir?"
He grins, "I thought you'd never ask, would be nice to give this rusty old blade a swing or two."
"Cicero will be ready after Mother is clean!" He races up the steps to do just that. I make myself comfortable with another drink.
"Just keep your eyes open, this chick was hellbent on killing me so who knows how these vamps will react? None of them seem to like me."
"Join the club." Babette mummers. Then raises her little voice, "None of our kind like me much either. They don't take fondly to assassins who kill vampires."
Food for thought. Good thing I don't associate as one of them. To me, it was just a horrible condition imposed on me by Mercer. One that's saved me but also cursed me. It's not all bad, but I can't imagine anyone willing to infect themselves with it.
"Go back to Oblivion you conniving creatures!" Nazir shouts, his blade severs one of said creature's heads. He turns then slices through another. I got a few with my fangs. "Traitor!" They would yell. Cicero was making good use with the crossbow. With the three of us combined, we had the first few levels of the cave cleared out.
When we found out they had spiders at their disposal, that was when it got harder. I stabbed one of the larger ones right through the head, just above the eyes then used the Blade for momentum to kick out at a vampire. She was starting to go for the ridiculous drain magic.
Bodies littered the floor again. Cicero looked around for spare coin before following my command. "This way." I remind him. Nazir is ahead but pauses at the entrance to another cavern, "I've got a bad feeling about this." He murmurs.
No sooner than he says that does the water move. The lake in the center of the cavern shifts. Forms emerge. All skeletons. What is Nazir thinking? This will be a piece of cake.
I throw my lighting power, or as they're calling it, spark magic, at the crowd. Five skeletons down. Cicero stabs through three, and Nazir, impressively, takes down seven. But before the dust can settle, they swarm us.
Glowing eyes, sharp fangs, kind of like what I saw in Morthal the night I left my human body for Sithis. A familiar sort of fear creeps up, but I use it for fuel for the kill. I use the Ebony Blade to it's full extent, swinging and slashing through all the flesh I can.
"Traitor to your kind!" A woman snarls after I behead her lover. At least I think it was her lover.
"There is no blood here for you!" Another yells.
"I know, I'm just looking for yours." I say, but they charge me. I swing, one bites into my arm and tears. The pain is immediate and sharp. Haven't felt that in a short minute.
The assaulting vampire lunges again, but I have my own fangs ready. His throat is out in seconds and one clean swing of the Blade ends his miserable life.
Nazir is breathing heavily, "Vampires. Hate them. Aside from you and Babette of course." He wipes sweat from his forehead.
"Trust me, I feel the same way." I say.
"Molag Bal shouldn't have created them. Mother would have been a better shepherd." Cicero mumbles to himself. He searches each one, under my orders, looking for a red gem necklace. It doesn't look like the one the Night Mother had me get her. That one was ruby red. These gems are bright blood red. We haven't found any on any corpses so far.
"Nothing." He confirms.
"Maybe my assassin was a fluke."
"Or, it was just a token, some sort of character quirk?" Nazir questions.
I shake my head. If it was a relic for them then they wouldn't go out of their way to wear it while killing people. "No. It differentiates her from me. It wasn't a mistake."
Nazir shrugs, "If you say so, I'm not sure about the two of you but I can only spend so long in a cave." He pauses, "Well, a cave that isn't my home."
"Agreed. I think two more rooms and we'll blow this popsicle stand." I sheath the Ebony Blade. Might use my fangs this time.
Five rooms. All filled with vampires and these gods awful black dogs. I've never seen anything like them, but I hate them immediately. And I really do like dogs. But these aren't a Barbas or Oliver. They're straight from the depths of Oblivion.
"Motherfucker!" I yell as one clamps his jaws on my already sore arm. He holds on for dear life even as I flail and thrash. Nothing will get the damn thing off.
Thankfully, Nazir is just around the corner and in my distress, he cuts the evil dog's head off. Now, we were once again surrounded with bodies, with no gems to find.
"I think this is it." Nazir mentions. I turn on the balcony to look down on this pavilion or sorts. It's a long hallway that looks like it should be on top of a castle, not five hundred or so feet below ground. We walk the designated path between the banisters until we get to the large circular floor. This is odd. Five pedestals stand around the larger one in the center. Looks like treasure might be about.
"Look around the perimeter," I signal to Cicero, then to Nazir, "Help me in the center, that pedestal just might have what we're looking for."
Nazir's brow furrows, "They'd leave the red gems in there?"
"You never know, they sure were going through hell to protect it."
He laughs, "As usual, you have a point."
The big rock in the center wasn't much. I paced around it three times before giving up. Nazir leans on one of the smaller pedestals, "Maybe there's a lever or switch? Check for that?"
"I've felt for everything." I groan, my hands race around the smooth surface. Nothing gives.
Nazir yelps and I spin, ready to get clobbered by another dog. Instead, I find Nazir gaping at the pedestal he was leaning on. It's now five feet back on a black line and it's lit up in purple fire. "This is new." Nazir says.
Cicero squeals, "A puzzle! Listener! That is the key to the pedestal!"
Almost like a lightbulb is lit above all our heads. Took us an embarrassingly long amount of time to get all the pedestals in place. At first, we thought moving them to the same circle would activate all of them. There were three circles, and the pedestals could only go towards the main one or away from it, never to the sides. Eventually, we moved them at random until they all lit up with purple flame. I'm surprised no lingering vampires heard all the commotion and arguing we were doing.
The pedestal in the middle moves. It rises, showing a larger doorway. I race to it and am the first one there. "Sike!" I yell at the two suckers behind me. A door is moving in the center of it, so I grab the side like a good dunce and pull the whole damn thing off.
She's positioned like an angel, arms crossed over her chest and a large scroll on her back. She falls to the ground when there's nothing to hold her back. I should have helped but I let her go. She smells like my kind. I spoke too soon.
"Back up." I command the others, then crouch, ready to tear her head off.
She just stands and blinks. Pretty vampire, if I would say so. Her red dress is fitting with her short black hair and golden eyes. Probably similar to how I look but my clothing is far dirtier.
"Uh…where is…who sent you here?" She crosses her arms and gives me a reproachful look.
"Could say the same about you." I rise, not letting my guard down fully but giving her a more civilized conversation. She didn't seem dangerous yet. "Who were you expecting?"
"Well, I was expecting someone…like me, at least."
I bare my fangs, "Looks like we're two peas in a pod."
"No, no, I know you're a vampire, but I was talking about my family. I could smell you from inside there."
Creepy. But I'd say the same thing. "Why were you locked up like that? Not going to try and kill us?"
"No. And that's…complicated. I'm not totally sure if I can trust you. But if you want to know the whole story, help me get back to my family's home." She glances at all of us.
"First a few questions." I cross my own arms. "Do you know who sent that assassin for me? Know of any red gems?"
She just stares at me like I asked her to complete a full quantum physics equation while standing on her head. "No. I've been away for a long while so I wouldn't know."
"How long?" Nazir's menacing demeanor was starting to warm. Out of the three of us I'd bet he's the easiest to approach.
"I don't know. What's it like in Skyrim? Who is the High King of Skyrim?"
Beats me. I know who the Emperor is though. But since that's a touchy subject, I glance at Nazir. He answers. "For some, that is Elisif the Fair. Others believe the High King is Jarl Ulfric Stormcloak. Me? I consider neither of them my true king. The mistress is who I serve." He nods to me.
The poor girl looks between us. "You're the High King?"
"No, I'm just a weirdo who hears voices. I'm the leader of the Dark Brotherhood and these are my associates." I hold my hands out to the two men next to me. To my dismay Cicero grasps my hand.
"Listener is not High King, but she has done so much for us."
The girl looks like she swallowed a lemon whole. "Dark Brotherhood huh? Didn't expect them to find me. Please tell me no one's trying to assassinate me."
"You're safe." I say, "For now. Just trying to trace back my own assassin."
She sighs, "Well, then it sounds like I've been below ground for a very long time. I don't know the answers you seek but if we get to my home, I might be able to help you find them."
"Deal, where do you live?"
"An island off the west coast of Solitude. We can get there by boat." She looks around the place in awe.
Island off the coast of Solitude…the Emperor spoke of something like that before he died.
The vampire is correct, go to the island and find the answers. She smells like the one you killed in Solitude.
I breathe in and sure enough, she smells like the assassin. "Let's go." I say, "Nazir want to come with us still?"
"I think I should get back and see how Babette is doing. She might need a contract or two." He says. My guess is he likes some action but not being thrown into the full fire. Luck he doesn't have to. "You'll be alright?"
"We've got this." I say. "Oh, and what's your name?" I address the newly unearthed vamp. I'll have to remember this.
"Serana. Good to meet you…"
"Eve. Nazir and Cicero at your service. Now let's cross the province of Skyrim and get you back to your home."
Good thing Nazir left. He was definitely fed up when the gargoyles burst from the statues right as we were leaving. It took the four of us combined to kill them all. The killing blows consisted of either my Blade through their neck or Nazir's. He left right after we got out of the cave.
Serana shrunk away from the dim rays from the sun. It was a cloudy day, gray and overcast, but it must be too much for her. Cicero stayed suspiciously silent the whole way to the carriage. I eyed him once or twice, but he seemed to be mumbling to himself. "This armor." I say, trying a conversation starter, "It's pretty helpful when it comes to that." I point to the sun hidden behind the clouds. "Looks like we don't need our daily dose of vitamin D."
She looks away uncomfortably, "Yeah, that. My cloak helps. Where'd you get that armor? Is there more fabric like it?"
I think back to Nocturnal. Don't think she'd want to share. "It's one of a kind. By the way, what was with the gargoyles? I've never seen live ones."
She sighs, "Deep family magic, not sure you'd want to know."
Oh, I do. I never knew vampires could be so…powerful and connected. All the ones I've come across were ragtag groups of glorified bandits hiding in their caves. But Serana was overwhelmed, so I let it slide.
A carriage took us across Skyrim. That took longer than I wanted. Cicero sang and danced. Serana dealt with him surprisingly well, I don't think she noticed him at all. She kept her eyes on the horizon and mentioned how much Skyrim had changed since she'd been back on land.
"The air, so much better than that damp cave." She murmurs. The frozen forest parts and the carriage angles downwards with the slope of the mountain. On the other side is a sea of gray, almost indiscernible from the sky above. The carriage stops.
"This is as far as I can take you." Driver says. I pay him a good amount and get the group all rounded up.
We walk down the beach, not too much see and not much of a beach when I really think about it. I was hoping there were parts of Skyrim where the water wasn't bone chilling. But I have yet to find it.
"There." Serana breathes then she breaks out into a run. Cicero and I follow. To our disappointment, her excitement was over a little rowboat. No island in sight to go to. But we humor her. As I take the rows and we shove off land, a thought crosses my mind. Maybe she's insane and there isn't an island. What if her family is dead? Or the island is eroded? But there has to be something there.
Go straight. You will see your destination. The Night Mother whispers.
I swallow and do as she says. The boat begins to bob and bounce around with the choppy waves. Icy water coats my skin but I'm fine. Cicero, not so much. He begins to shake.
"How far?" I ask.
Two minutes. She responds.
"I, I don't know. I know I'll see it soon though." Serana replies, her eyes on the horizon in grim anticipation. Might be a bad time to tell her about the Night Mother.
I don't really look back. But when the boat finally digs into the dirt I stand and turn to see what they're gaping at. I freeze when I see it. A towering castle, beautiful, just like a castle should be. The sturdy stone of it was build up high and spread out, taking up all of the island for itself. Towers dotted the horizon. This is the kind of thing you'd only find in Cyrodiil or somewhere like it.
"This is it." Serana says, her tone is as damp as the rain coating us. "My family home. Castle Volkihar."
Cicero's Journal Entry
14th of First Seed, 4E 202
Mother, new details. We found a vampire and have been taking her to her island. Somewhere off Solitude…we are close to the hitman. I know it. But what strange whispers. What is it we need to know? Something close, something good, and something deadly…you are heard…