KINDRED JUDGEMENT
"Not as shiny as I was expecting." Serana looks over the Bow. Vorstag runs his hands over it, to check the integrity of the weapon, "This is marvelous, Eve! A great gift from the gods." I almost tell him to take it.
But Harkon is my kill. Maybe after, if I survive the fight, I'll gift it to Vorstag.
"The weapon. This is what Mother wanted." Cicero whispers, his fingers brush the edge of the Bow, carefully as if it would burn him.
"It is beautiful." I murmur, "What do we do now?" The question hangs heavy in the air, and I expect the Night Mother to answer, instead Serana beats her to it.
"Well, before we spoke with my mother in the Soul Cairn, I would have said we bring the Bow to my father. But after everything with her, we can't trust him." She backtracks with the look I give her, "We can't, even if he didn't kill your parents…we have to kill him. He'll only turn on us when we aren't looking." Smart girl.
"You sure you can go through with killing your own father?" Vorstag, the voice of reason, chimes in.
"Yes, he hasn't truly been my father for some time." She says flatly.
"It's settled, we go back to the Castle and face this freak." I spit, then I look at Vorstag. "You don't have to come. None of you have to. I can go in by myself."
"No! I can't let you face him alone. I'm coming with you." Serana says instantly.
Vorstag nods, "I'm coming with you too, I won't let you get hurt by that monster."
"Mother doesn't want us to separate. Ever." Cicero rubs the edge of the Bow.
I ignore that last part, I'll have to deal with him eventually, but he might aid me in this fight. "Let's go then, daylight's burning."
Castle Volkihar. The whole towering, heaping, brick monster is asleep. The grounds are barren of people. No one mills about. The towers themselves seem to lay in rest and wait, the soft light from the overcast sky blesses the land in a faint glow. The water is calm.
This might be the last time I see it from the outside. Once I'm done with my task here and if I make it back out of the Soul Cairn, I'm determined to never set foot here again. Vorstag was nice enough to row us in this time. The group is tense and on alert.
"Any advice?" I ask her.
As with the others, his weakness is best exploited when he is distracted. The Bow will help with any magical spells he casts. Make sure you kill him fast.
That last part's an afterthought but also a reminder. I can't depend on her help for long until she turns on me. I need to accept it for the time being but revolt when all is said and done.
The walk up to the massive doors is easy and smooth. No one is waiting outside for us. No stinking Dawguard sneaking around to attack us, just the vampire on the other side of the door. "Ready?" I whisper to the group but more to Serana. She's as tense as a top.
"As ready as I'll ever be." She whispers back.
I take the initiative and move ahead of Vorstag to be the first one in. I want the slimy bastard to remember I was the one to show up first and I'll be the last face he sees. I use my forearm to shove open the massive iron door.
When I thought I'd face my parents' murderer in the final moments, I thought I'd face him as he was. A humanoid creature with a sniveling face and malice in his gaze. Instead, he's waiting right inside, in his Vampire Lord form. A gargoyle-like creature with sharp teeth and large muscles. Something scary you don't want to bump into in the late hours. Guess I'm that kind of creature too. I take a quick survey of the room for anyone waiting to defend him but there's no one.
Defend him? He's too proud to let someone else fight for him.
"So, you've returned." I expect this form of the Vampire Lord to growl, instead his voice is as clear as it's ever been. Wonder what his secrets are. He tilts his head to stare down at me.
"Is your…pet keeping you entertained?" He purrs.
"You know why we're here." Serana steps forwards with defiant hands on her hips.
"Of course, I do. You disappoint me, Serana. You've taken everything I provided for you and thrown it all away for this…pathetic half-breed vampire."
"Provided for me? Are you insane?" The girl sneers. "You've destroyed our family. You've killed other vampires. All over some prophecy that we barely understand." She shakes her head, the emotion in her voice is showing. "You know what, I'm done with you. You will not touch her." Serana crouches, blade now in her right hand.
Our kill. She commands.
"So, I see this dragon has fangs." Harkon tilts his head to the side, surveying us. "Your voice drips with the venom of your mother's influence. How alike you've become."
I should step in, but I let Serana have her time with her father. It will be the last. "No father, because unlike her, I'm not afraid of you. Not anymore."
I pull the Bow out, ready to take this monster down. He floats towards me, a certain menace in his gaze but no recognition. Had he really not known who I was?
"And you, it appears I have you to thank for turning my daughter against me. I knew it was only a matter of time before your ambition outgrew your loyalty." He sneers condescendingly.
"You're really that dumb or are you just playing it?" I smile now at his confusion. "Remember me? Child who was cursed with lighting? Had to dispose of her parents to get to the Scroll? I believe it was the one that got lost with your wife. Dad did so much to keep it safe, but he didn't have to pay for it with his life." My voice continues to rise in barely concealed rage. Soon, I will being seeing red with him.
Keep your head on straight. She reminds me.
He laughs, so loud and long that Cicero begins to fidget next to me. Vorstag keeps a stony face but Serana is breaking. I see it in her weakening stance. Harkon beams with the revelation. He waves a hand to me in a grandiose manner. "Northstar! That was your family name. Now I remember you. I had a feeling it was you. Yes, the sniveling cowards couldn't get your association to kill him themselves, so I had to do it. Your father never took up the offer to change over, your mother did unwillingly. That's why it's so surprising to find you have. Unless you never wanted this power?"
I grind my teeth. I can't wait to have his flesh between them. He's goading you. Mother reminds me.
"I didn't. I wanted it gone but now I see the benefits."
He laughs again. "Yes, your mother did too. Although we could never get her to change back to her mortal form, I did the liberty of taking some of her blood to study it…but after her disappearance with my wife I kept it locked up. When I had my suspicions the other day, I put some of it in your drink. Your reaction was…telling." He smiles.
My stomach turns to knots. That faux champagne toast when I brought the priest in…I thought the blood was poisoned but instead he used it as a litmus test for who I was.
"I had a feeling you'd return." He continues, not noticing how I'm shaking with wrath. "I had heard rumors of your power, of how it came to be." He smiles again, in the most menacing way possible and his gold heated eyes lock with mine. "Is Lady Death still with you? I heard she's a pain to have."
I snap. I leap across the room and tear into his neck, but he just explodes into a swarm of bats. They race around me then up to the ceilings. I ready the Bow, vampire cure be dammed. I have it in my pocket but there is no time to load it. This is when I needed to shoot to kill. But I can't get a good shot in. He keeps moving and throwing power my way.
Skeletons rise from the ground. "Get them!" I yell to the others and am happy to see they're already on it.
Harkon flies to the other side of the room and produces a black and red transparent orb around himself. Some sort of protection spell. Good thing I have the Bow. I fling an arrow at it, which weakens the force field. He snarls.
I smile. Each noise of pain and defeat from him is music to my ears. Yellow power explodes from the orb, like the sun breaking free. I fling more arrows, one after another, until ten are lodged into the vampire. The evil creature snarls and swoops down to me.
Before I can roll out from under him, he pins me to the ground. The Bow goes flying. His powerful talons slash my arms and torso. I should shift, but it would only give him a bigger target.
Vorstag intervenes. His blade slices into Harkon's back and I look for a good opportunity. The monster, the man who killed my first family, my home, destroyed my life, is laying over me with fangs nearing my throat. Warming saliva drips from them on my neck. I know I'm sitting here waiting for the final blow. But I won't take it. He also gave me to Mother. Allowed her to ruin me further.
Don't be ungrateful. You need me.
I contain myself as I keep the vampire's snapping fangs from my throat. Vorstag is at his back, trying so hard to flay into him. The Ebony Blade is at my own back, but I have the power I needed all along. Corny, right?
She abides, for once.
Without this, you would not hold his ashes.
I remember them. Mom and dad's faces as the power of the storm consumes me. Man, what I would do to talk to them again. Just one more time. I wish I could show them this. Then they would know they didn't die in vain.
Lightning races up and down my body, a strong thunderstorm I've felt before when she wanted to attack me. But this time I flows outwards onto Harkon. His fangs unlatch themselves from me to allow him to scream bloody murder. The sound so loud in my ears but I savor every moment of it.
I almost wish this wasn't the end for him. Maybe I can strike a deal with Molag Bal, get him to replay this death over again for me. His body rips and tears itself apart. I'm in a haze as the red ash falls on my body and the ground. Harkon, the murderer, is no more. I lay, just for a moment in it, to sit the kill. It's over. All I wanted for so long.
"Well, now that's done." Serana says, little remorse in her voice. Vorstag holds out a hand to me, but I don't take it. I need to catch my breath. Clear my head. He turns to Serana. "You're alright? What do you wish to do now?"
"Well, maybe some more adventures if you have any planned…" She eyes me, waiting for an answer she won't receive.
The Night Mother is enthralled with this development. Harkon, her greatest adversary is dead and whatever lies in the dungeons is hers for the taking. I rise on shaky legs. Cicero comes to help me. Blood covering him once again, he holds my elbow. "Listener! Why we did it!" He guffaws then pulls me into a bear hug. I cling to him to keep my weakened legs from falling out from under me. He squeezes tighter. I look over his shoulder at the two vampires.
"Run." I say.
Something in my expression must have alerted them. They both wanted to protest but they couldn't. There wasn't any time when all hell broke loose. I use the call for Durnehviir, something in my voice makes it happen. Cicero shrieks when the large, decaying, dragon appears in the center of the room.
His scaled and tattered form almost takes up the whole area. His large face moves to stare me down in surprise. "Nikrent, we meet again, what do you wish of me?"
"No!" Cicero screams he paws for my arm to keep me away.
I shove him hard. Can't even take in the beautiful sight of him falling face-first to the cobbled pavement. "Take me to the Soul Cairn now!" I race to leap on the dragon, but she has other plans. Her power, the same power that killed Harkon consumes me. I fall to the ground with the lighting storm. The worst storm I've ever felt. It sears my skin and bones, burning from the inside out.
I try to scream and let out the energy now flowing through me rapidly. I want to scream but I find that I can't my throat is raw from the force of the electricity coating me. So strong that I can't even think, it's going for my head. The sight before I pass out is of Durnehviir breaking free of the Castle, rising to fly straight through the large doors with a flailing Serana and a panicked Vorstag in his talons.
When I rise, I am weak. My flesh is destroyed, one look at my clothing and it's torn, the skin below as black as the Nightingale armor I'm wearing. I groan, my insides feel like they got thrown into a furnace and reattached. I'm not in the best of sitting positions, my place on the ground with my arms chained above me is bringing on more of the fire.
I scream out, the only sound I can make, but for once no one is there to hear me.
Cicero's Journal Entry
26th of Rain's Hand, 4E 202
Mother we did it! The vampire menace is dead! The Castle is ours! Listener…her betrayal I was not expecting but I should have seen it! She never respected you, never wanted what is best for you like I have! Now her punishment is to sit with the fire in her throat…you said that's what happens to vampires who can't drink, right?
There is much for me to prepare but for now she will sit and she will think about what she's done. Who she's betraying. Then, when the time is ripe…we will begin.