Chapter 7: Stand By You
Ashes took a break and sat on the log she was flung to by the dragon with this triumphant look like she conquered the dead tree. Typical cursed Nords. Serana shook her head with a smile and went to go retrieve where she hid her Elder Scroll and the bedroll. When she came back, she frowned with worry when the fire mage had her calf turned out, where blood ran down it from where the dragon nipped it. It was a sizable gash. Ashes gingerly ran her fingers over the laceration.
"We need to bandage that up," Serana started.
The rest of her words died in her throat when there were short bursts of hot and bright flashes beneath the fingers, travelling down the length of the gash until the wound was cauterized. Serana bit her tongue and remained where she was, looking away instead of the pain that screamed in Ashes' eyes, but not her face. The fool was stopping herself from expressing it.
"It's fine now," Ashes muttered. Her voice cracked and she coughed quickly to mask it.
"It's-" Serana stopped.
She knew better than to argue with a stubborn Nord. She walked closer and got a better look at Ashes' back, where dark bruises set in from the impact of the log. The fire mage looked over her shoulder but didn't seem to be able to see it.
"How bad is it?"
"You've got the colours of the rainbow on here," Serana grumbled dryly.
Her lips twitched with a smile when the fruity laughter rang in the air. She held her hand above the darkest bruise and chilled her fingers intensely enough to radiate the cold. She roved over the back, back and forth, and stole glimpses at the fire mage's face as Ashes' head slumped in relaxation.
"That feels nice," she mumbled. Her hands threaded in her hair to keep her head up. "Thanks..."
"Maybe we should go back in the cavern and camp for the day, maybe take that bath?" Serana asked hopefully. "Would you be able to melt that ice?"
"Mm-hm," Ashes nodded lazily.
Too lazily.
Mischievous, Serana burst with a bone-biting cold to wake the fire mage up instead, and it worked like a charm when she shot off the log with a yelp.
"Hey! What was that for?!"
"Can't have you falling asleep here," Serana smirked. "And I'm not carrying you." She took the lead back to the cavern. "Let's go."
Ashes groaned. "Ugh. Wonderful. I can see I was sorely mistaken to be relieved I got away from Éclair the taskmaster. Now I'm stuck with Serana the whip-master."
Serana chuckled. "I like the sound of that."
"You'll like the sound of anything that involves breaking my back," the fire mage grumbled.
"Well, someone's got to keep the workhorse motivated."
Serana simply smiled when she felt a twig hit the back of her head.
Ashes' energy was reinvigorated just by the sight of a challenge. She wore a raring grin and knelt by the edge of the frozen pond, igniting her fists. There was no way she was going to be able to melt this ice all in one strike. Serana didn't deny she was both curious and amused to see the fire mage flail and fail.
Instead of launching fireballs at the pond, which the vampire predicted, she watched as the flaming fists punched into the ice and cringed for Ashes, who's face was devoid of anything that wasn't pure concentration. The fire mage repeatedly punched in the same spot until her fists broke through and she fell forward, her arms stuck in the little holes she created. Serana laughed at the pitiful call.
"Help?"
"Oh, I don't know. I quite enjoy this view."
Ashes was awkward, the side of her face smushed against the ice. She looked at it like a challenge once more, and a little pink tongue glimpsed out the corner of her lip in concentration. Steam whisked away from her face. The ice didn't melt much by her head, and that stood as predicted. But Serana was caught off guard when, suddenly, the ice cracked like webs all throughout the entire pond. It appeared to thin. When pieces broke apart, intense steam squeezed between the cracks and chunks of ice.
"You heated up the water to melt the ice," Serana mused, amused and impressed as she came to the edge.
"Not everything needs to be destroyed to smithereens," Ashes stated proudly when she freed herself. She twisted with that triumphant grin of hers. "Told you I've got wit."
"That you do," the vampire chuckled.
While Ashes wasted no time to disrobe and jump in, Serana was, understandably, a little hesitant. She knelt by the edge and dipped her hand in the water, hissing when it scalded. She sighed when the fire mage didn't seem as though she would calm down any time soon and stop frolicking about in her prance of victory. Serana shed her belongings and called on her magic to coat her body in thick frost, which proved to be a nuisance to sustain when she dipped into the water. She reserved herself to a little corner to chill that area for herself. She frowned with distaste over Ashes' decisions to swim under or around the bones of the dragon.
"You're asking for trouble," Serana murmured. "That's going to shift and you'll suffer worse than a hand being impaled."
"I don't think anything or anyone can move this, except maybe like a powerful witch or something like that."
Serana closed her eyes and smiled when she subtly waved her hand to the side, and took delight in the panicked yelp that followed. Bones creaked, and curses followed Ashes when she frantically paddled away from the corpse before it crashed on top of her. The water rippled in powerful waves and brought forth the scalding areas to Serana, but it was well worth it, using her reserves to drop her temperature even more. She opened her eyes and smirked sweetly at Ashes, who blinked in disbelief at the bones of the torso now on it's side.
"I think I just moved it."
Ashes' eyes snapped to her, incredulous. The fire mage's mouth exploded in a grin as if she had silently accepted another challenge of some sort, and she swam over. She stopped suddenly and looked down at the water, dipping her hand in where it had been significantly chilled and broke apart the thin glacial layer coating the surface. Ashes looked back up at Serana and her grin hadn't faltered.
"I stand uncorrected." The fire mage jabbed a finger. "Powerful witch."
Serana chuckled. She laid her head and arms back on the edge as she closed her eyes, enjoying the sensation of water lapping against her. Her lips twitched when she felt droplets flicked at her face. Seriously, Ashes behaved as if silence and peace were killing her. It was baffling how someone who was capable of mass destruction could be so playful, to put it kindly.
Teeth chattering earned an eye to open, and then both did in surprise when the fire mage had invaded the chilled area. She came over to rest against the wall beside Serana. The tell-tale scent of Ashes' fear in the vampire's presence had ignited with a vengeance, as usual, but Serana ignored it. She did not expect the mortal to stop being nervous any time soon, but she still appreciated that Ashes continued to try despite all of that. Why?
"What are you doing?" Serana asked. "You're going to freeze like this."
"It's only fair after I heated the pond up too much for you. Besides, I'm curious."
Serana's brow arched, bewildered. "Curious about what?"
"How you can tolerate this cold."
Ashes sunk lower until the water covered her shoulders, her chin slapping the surface as she chattered even more. The vampire didn't know what to say other than to point out the obvious of why she could tolerate this temperature, and yet all she could do was stare in disbelief. Ashes turned blue in the lips, and she still managed to wear that wild child smile. Her teeth must have ached from how hard they chiselled away at each other.
"B-bes-sides, g-g-goo-ood-d for-for m-my ba-aa-aack."
Serana's head hung in defeat. "Someone save me."
Slabs of the deer from before, what little uncontaminated meat could be salvaged, were impaled on sticks and cooked by the campfire, courtesy of the one obvious mage responsible for sustaining it. Whenever Ashes wasn't looking, Serana snuck pieces that were still bloodied and sucked it out the thin threads of muscle. She couldn't hide what wasn't there anymore though.
"Hey, where did the meat go?"
Ashes plucked out the sticks that didn't have anything on them. She looked over at Serana, who was too slow to wipe the blood that dribbled down her chin.
"Oh... Right..."
Ashes didn't say anything else and worked on cutting more meat, then stared at the sticks. She suddenly threw them in the fire and got up, running away. Serana sighed. She couldn't help her true hunger, and she wasn't going to apologize for it either. It was a need she needed to sate just as how the fire mage needed to sate whatever she needed from dragons. It didn't make it sting any less though. Ashes was bound to rebuild her boundaries again, and the vampire already missed their slivers of playfulness. They were getting close to travelling on a good path.
A long leaf was thrust in her face. She leaned back in surprise and looked up at Ashes, who seemed nervous. The fire mage knelt with a shy smile and flattened the leaf down on the ground, then bounced up and tugged on the carcass' leg until it ripped free. She took the dagger and came back in front of Serana, slicing the fur off to score the meat. Then she held it out.
"H-here," Ashes mumbled, her gaze short and sheepish. She squeezed the meat until blood trickled out of the checkered cuts. "Maybe this will be better for you."
"Thanks..."
Serana accepted the leg. She waited for Ashes to leave, but she just sat there awkwardly. The vampire smiled and shot back the words she heard when they first dined together.
"It's weird to eat with you staring."
Ashes blinked. Her laughter exploded and echoed in the cavern. She nodded and pushed off the ground, heading to tend to what was left on the sticks.
Truth be told, the scoring made eating messier for Serana, but she would choose a better time to say so. She sank her fangs in the meat and angled it so what dribbled out the slits wouldn't stain her clothes, and drank as quietly as she could. She almost choked on her meal when Ashes' out of the blue question caught her off guard.
"We don't have to pretend to be friends anymore, right?"
The hurt was ignored as soon as it flared. Serana didn't stop eating and finished her meal first before she retracted her fangs, shielded her mouth with the leg, and wiped her lips. She didn't know what to say and shrugged. Ashes sat by the fire and hugged her legs to her chest, resting her chin on her knees.
"Because we are friends, right?"
Serana stared. "P-pardon?" She must have misheard. "Did you ask if we are friends?"
Ashes nodded. Maybe these were illusion tricks played on the mind. Serana set the leg down and held her palm in front of her face to summon arcane magic to dispel any such trickery. The fire mage lifted her head and watched with curiosity. Then she smirked.
"Now you know how I feel if it's hard for you to believe. Weird as you are, I'd like to think we are friends though."
"Weird as I am?" Serana sputtered. She shook her head. "That's you."
"I'm not the one eating raw meat and drinking it's blood."
"Th-that's because-!"
Flustered, Serana didn't know what to say. She felt her cheeks flame up when Ashes laughed at her.
"You should see the look on your face."
Serana took the leg and threw it at the fire mage.
"So what exactly are we expected to find in there?" Serana muttered as they approached a well-fortified stone complex. She glanced beside her.
Ashes' gaze seemed to snap from guard to guard. The thalmor were either paranoid, or had good reason to set up defences like this. The fire mage held out her arm to stop Serana when a ballista was craned to aim at them. Were the dwarves allied with them to lend their technology? The Empire of this era was at a significant disadvantage then.
"I don't know yet, we'll figure it out once we're inside." Ashes stole a sideways look. "I need you to trust me when we're in there. I'm going to try to negotiate with them."
"Negoti-?"
"Halt!" A gate guard shouted. Her crisp accent reminded Serana of Vingalmo, and she shuddered. "You are trespassing and we will not hesitate to fire!"
Ashes held up her hands in surrender.
"I am here to talk with the highest ranking officer of this compound. I have in my possession a valuable object that may prove beneficial to the thalmor."
A pause, and the guards looked at each other. The ballista was slowly cranked to aim away and the gate guard approached them with caution. Her eyes narrowed.
"You have some nerve approaching us, Dragonborn. Every agent is under strict orders to kill you on sight. Tell me: why should we disobey them?"
"I don't have to tell you anything. Bring me to your superior."
Sparks burst to life in the gate guard's palm and she snarled. "Do not play games with me, Dragonborn."
Serana hid her hand behind her to call on her frost magic. Ashes stepped closer to her and hid her arm behind her back as well, but crossed further enough to be able to grab the vampire's elbow, squeezing gently.
"What I have is sensitive intel and I am positive those higher ranking than you will appreciate my discretion in that I am not touting it to all lowly footsoldiers to hear."
The gate guard's eyes flashed with rage, but it simmered the moment they flickered to Serana. Fear stunk in the air that did not only belong to Ashes being close to her. The vampire neglected to cast an illusion spell to mask her appearance, but that became the least of her worries soon.
"I-is that... An Elder Scroll?" The gate guard asked.
"Yes," Ashes stated sternly. "And it's mine."
Serana stopped her eyes from snapping over when the fire mage's hand squeezed her elbow twice. She better know what she was doing.
There was a tense standstill, and the vampire's gaze honed in on every single thalmor agent visible. She caught sight of those hiding in shadows and nooks, where the tips of arrows poked out of slits in the building. If this went south, even she could not boast escaping unscathed. What had she gotten herself into? This was potentially just as dangerous, if not more, then what waited for her at home. She was beginning to have doubts, but she gave her word. She couldn't abandon Ashes now. She couldn't abandon her friend. If they were friends. Who was to say it wasn't a powerplay the fire mage made just to trick Serana to be a willing ally? It wouldn't be the first such political maneuver Serana had suffered thanks to the machinations of courtly intrigue.
"Are you going to bring me to your superior or not?" Ashes sighed impatiently. Her attitude jostled the gate guard.
"State your true purpose as to why you're approaching us. Why would you not go to the Blades with this?"
"I'm obviously here to spy on you," the fire mage confessed with a bored look.
It took all of Serana's willpower not to face palm or hiss at the woman for giving herself away.
"The Blades would not have the resources or power to unlock the secrets of an Elder Scroll," Ashes continued. "The Thalmor would. Any more than that, I am not at liberty to divulge to you. Take me to your superior or you can do a silly dance as you answer to them yourself why you turned away this opportunity."
"Turn away? What makes you think you would be leaving here alive?"
Heat stung at Serana's elbow, and the air became harder to breathe. She glanced over and saw Ashes growing frustrated. The vampire broke free and stepped forward.
"You can see what I am." Serana narrowed her eyes. "I belong to Skyrim's longest line and most powerful clan of vampires, daughter to the Lord Himself, and the clan is watching over us as we speak. The Elder Scroll is-" she shot a sarcastic look at Ashes. "-mine. Slaughter one vampire, me, and you'll lose this entire fortress within a fort night. You should be grateful we have not already done so already, and approach in peace." She held up her arm. "All I need to do is wave my hand and beasts that would terrify your nightmares will descend upon you all. I can just as easily charm your superior officer and turn you into my thrall as I can sit down to discuss the contents of this Elder Scroll." She smirked when the gate guard's stench steadily became worse, despite her stoic appearance of looking unfazed. "Now are there any more questions, or must I force my way in?"
"No, that's not necessary," the gate guard grumbled. "Very well, I see the benefits." Of not dying? "Follow me, I will bring you to the Commander at once. Stay your hand."
Everyone lowered their weapons when the gate guard circled her hand in the air. Ashes shot the vampire a look like she was both impressed and terrified. The way she stole glances around to see if there were other members of the clan about made Serana bite her tongue so that she hadn't laughed. She smirked until her cheeks ached when Ashes hesitantly came close, but still with enough distance, for her whisper to be heard.
"Does that mean you're... Royalty?"
"We'll discuss this after," Serana deflected and took lead. Her smile widened when Ashes actually walked beside her, her nervousness slowly melting away.
That, and her finally coming to terms, meant more than anything else in this moment.
"Nords aren't fair-weather friends. Regardless of who or what you are, Serana, I stand by you."