Bulnon pushed away from a ringing engagement of Tensnd's spectral steel on Dawnbreaker, and passed his opponent to take a position at the centre of the circle. Gaping faces watched. Tensnd turned and swung his arm above his head. He followed Bulnon keenly.
Tensnd slashed his sword arm down and Bulnon dodged. He swiped in front of him and Dawnbreaker stopped it short. "Meridia, your champion is skilled. He will make a fine addition to my army." he cried.
Bulnon paced backward. "I will never be your slave." He said.
"You are a slave to one god. Why not another?" Tensnd pushed forward.
"You are no god!" Meridia boomed.
Nisravi quaked at the Daedra's voice. She stared through legs and drooping hands.
"With your help, all kinds of things are possible, mistress." Tensnd said. "I will be a divine peace upon this world."
Bulnon pounced forward and stabbed at the elf. Tensnd knocked the strike away and backed up himself. The two circled again. "My acolytes have given themselves to the collective. My ritual." Tensnd tapped his amulet. "The one upon Dawnbreaker still. They have given their bodies to a glorious purpose, and their souls a clear path to a room beyond, among the planes of Oblivion. A room with no walls. My room."
Tensnd slashed his sword into a glancing blow along Dawnbreaker's edge, then sprang to Bulnon's flank and a stream of fire flowed from his spare hand against Bulnon's back. The fighter fled the flames and turned his singed back away. Dawnbreaker filled the space between them like a viper.
"And with that sword in my hand again, I will dispatch the unwashed and all will join the collective." Tensnd breathed.
Nisravi came through the shuffling herd to an opening, she was facing Bulnon's back. And Tensnd was facing her! She shrank into the ranks, unsure if he saw her.
"You are a simple mortal dabbling with forces you cannot control. Let the souls rest, destroy these abominations!" Meridia pleaded.
"Sweet Meridia. I will cleanse this world and the gods will take notice. I will have my place among you!" Tensnd said.
"I shall send you to them now!" Bulnon cried as he swung his sword slashing up in a singing arc, and then twisted it across so powerfully it pushed Tensnd and his magical sword off of his feet. The sorcerer slid along the ground.
Bulnon followed the elf's fall and shot toward him, but Tensnd sprang to his feet again and narrowly dodged Bulnon's charging thrusts. He thwacked the sword away with his spectral steel and caught Bulnon in the jaw with his fist. Bulnon staggered back a few steps from the impact.
Bulnon spotted Zoeigh's hand springing above the masses. It was pointing at two humungous Ice Trolls shuffling through the crowd. Tensnd followed Bulnon's eyes to the hopping Khajiit.
"Ah Bulnon, your little friend lives." Tensnd said, turning back to Bulnon lunging forward again. He deflected the blow and countered with a slash. Bulnon levered his arm back to block and the conjured sword clanged away. Bulnon strode through his lunge and turned again to face his foe.
Tensnd came around easily and put some distance between them. Through the swaying corpses, Zoeigh could now look into the eyes of her brother's killer. She emerged from the crowd beside Bulnon, dagger in hand.
"What have you done to Kesril?" Zoeigh questioned frankly.
"My child, he serves a greater purpose now. You will see." Tensnd answered. The undead men flanking her bore down upon her but she nimbly rolled forward and into a full charge. She bellowed as she raced toward the wizard, her dagger above her head.
Bulnon cried out, his hand raised instinctively. Tensnd changed his footing to the new threat. His hand glowed hot with magical fire. When Zoeigh was only a few paces away, his firebolt let loose and she was carried as far back as she started. She tumbled through the waiting arms of the dead ones, and well into the crowd. It roiled and seethed with her passing, and then stopped.
Tensnd looked back to Meridia's champion "Well, Bulnon. No more friends. And when I finish my ritual with you, you will have no more worries either." He said.
Bulnon boiled. He whirled his sword in his hand and danced on his feet. "Necromancer, your time comes." He began to charge forward but his foot was caught up by the enormous hand of an ice troll. He fell forward, and the other one pounced on the arm that carried Dawnbreaker. Together, the two ice trolls pulled Bulnon to a kneel. Tensnd walked casually to him while he struggled.
"My time has indeed come. Dawnbreaker, the wonders we will accomplish together." He raised his chin to the troll grappling Bulnon's sword arm. The troll lifted it straight.
"Bulnon, take heart! You join all the world in eternity." Tensnd raised his conjured sword high above his head. "You join me in my conquest!" He brought the sword down through Bulnon's outstretched arm. It came free at the elbow and Dawnbreaker clattered to the ground.
Bulnon screamed and crumpled the stump into his other arm, still held by the massive ice troll. His severed elbow spurted blood into the trolls hide, the red began to spread.
Tensnd stood again from the followthrough. "It's poetic that you should be lifted up by the blade with which you cleaved so many of the damned from this world." His conjured sword disappeared in a poof of sparkling dust. Still staring at Bulnon's crumpled, pathetic form huddling into the spreading red on the ice trolls hide, He rose a hand and the amulet around his neck began to glow a deep red. He stooped to pick up Dawnbreaker with his other hand but found nothing but dirt. He snapped his head around to see the sword hovering beside him. He grasped for the handle, but it weaved and dodged his grasp.
The blade moved back and then briskly flung high at Tensnd's head. The elf pulled away and the enchantment broke, the light of his amulet died. He turned his head following the spinning sword into the sky. In the crowd at his back, Nisravi nimbly hopped from the knee of one dead man, to the shoulder of another, and high into the air. She caught Dawnbreaker and used its momentum to swing deftly as she came down upon him.
Tensnd had time only to utter "No!" Before the sword found his neck. His head tumbled to the ground. His body teetered, and then crumpled as well.
The room was still and silent for a moment. "Ha! Did you see that Bulnon? We saved you!" Zoeigh's disembodied voice taunted in the fading light. With Tensnd's death darkness once again filled the cavern. The dead ones stood motionless. Bulnon pulled at his arm still in the ice trolls clutches, his gushing arm bleeding freely
"Bulnon!" Nisravi dropped Dawnbreaker and went to the wounded man. She slammed her body into the troll and tore Bulnon away from it's petrified grip, Bulnon was too weak to fight her, he fell onto his back. She ripped the belly out of her ragged shirt and wrapped his elbow tight. In the sword's dim glow she held her hands to the wound.
Bulnon looked up at Nisravi "You saved my life." He muttered, delirious. "You are..cousin?"
"Nisravi. It's an honour Bulnon, champion of Meridia." She said.
"It was my idea." Zoeigh remarked. Dawnbreaker levitated once more, straight up in the air. Zoeigh reappeared holding the sword in a triumphant pose. "I guess you won't be needing this anymore."
"Cousin! Please focus. Go and untie Kesril, we have much to do." Nisravi scolded. Zoeigh gave a sour look, but left the sword behind and went to the back room.
Nisravi turned back to Bulnon, who stared up at her. "You are beautiful." He cooed.
"You are in shock." Nisravi blushed "But keep talking. You need to stay awake."
Bulnon joined his hand to Nisravi's. He gazed into the darkness. "What do we do abou-" he clenched his jaw against a rush of pain. He jerked his finger up "All of these."
"I do not know champion." She said. She pressed herself into the wound, and felt Bulnon push harder as well. His face was sweating and pale. His eyes closed in long breaths. He was still there.
"You must find a mage who can divine the ritual Tensnd has placed upon the sword." Meridia's voice echoed through the chamber. "If their cursed souls can be found in this room with no doors, they may yet return to their bodies. And my sword, my totem in this realm, will be sullied no more!"
"Yes, Mer-meridia." Nisravi managed to get out. She regarded the darkness but landed back on Bulnon. "Yes." She said to him with purpose. His face alighted a little.
"Cousin Nisravi." Meridia commanded. Nisravi searched Bulnon's fading features, but the warrior only nodded, weakly and deliberately. "Our contract with your family is ended. But I wish to make another. With you."
"Anything, mistress." Nisravi spoke.
Out of the deep black silence there was a distant raking sound, even Bulnon let his head fall in its direction. Nisravi shifted to the balls of her feet, ready for anything.
"With my champion now unable to carry out my will, I ask that you-" Meridia cut short, the wretched scraping sound again, and the unmistakable sound of claws! Nisravi released from Bulnon's wounded arm and his body slumped. She leapt to where Dawnbreaker lay and handled it comfortably.
The glow of the sword illuminated the haunted faces of hundreds of poor souls, as still as a crypt. In the silence there was breathing. Then the scraping and scratching sound again.
Zoeigh called out in the darkness "Can I get your help with this? He won't budge and he's really heavy."
Nisravi swallowed the adrenaline welling up in her belly. Holding Dawnbreaker ahead of her she went searching into the cavern. She found Zoeigh struggling with Kesril's ridged form, exactly in the position they had left him. His arms and feet were both still held behind him. Nisravi let a laugh escape her mouth. "Cousin Zoeigh, have you not untied him?"
"I did, he won't move! Help me!" Zoeigh pulled on the leather strap that had bound Kesril's feet. Now it was looped around one of his knees, and he was being dragged upon his bare chest. Nisravi grabbed Kesril's arm and they lifted him. She led their way back to Bulnon, clutching his own arm and fighting to stay awake.
Zoeigh dropped the strap and ran ahead. Kesril's body fell to the ground again.
"Boy are you lucky I came with you, Champion." Zoeigh rummaged in her satchel and pulled out a purple tonic. She unbound Bulnon's severed elbow and poured the tonic on the wound. It bubbled and firmed up and the bleeding stopped.
"Lady Meridia, as you were saying." Nisravi remarked eagerly.
"Young Nisravi, your skill with a sword is adequate. Will you be a champion for the light and rid the world of darkness? Will you wield Dawnbreaker in my name?" Meridia offered. Zoeigh snapped her head into the the black above, but she said nothing.
Nisravi looked to Bulnon's crumpled, gasping form. "Yes. I will do as you command, Meridia."
Zoeigh gawked at Nisravi. "I was only gone a minute, what are you doing?" She asked.
Nisravi pretended not to hear. She grappled Kesril's twisted body but his muscles were rock solid, an enchanted rigor mortis. She couldn't move them at all.
Zoeigh kicked at Tensnd's headless body. She spied his amulet, blood soaked in the dirt where he fell. She snatched it up quickly and showed it to Nisravi. "Could this help? Whoa, ah." Zoeigh could feel the combined attention of the cavern full of people. She immediately felt connected to every one of them. She beheld the crowd for a moment. Then she raised the amulet in front of her and concentrated.
A tawny, slight Elf woman snapped a kick into the gut of the heavy set Nord man at her side. The Nord barely responded to the blow, but Zoeigh squealed in delight. "Ok, we can go." She stated.
Zoeigh slung the amulet around her neck, beads of blood rolled down her neck and tunic. Nisravi gave her a look of disgust.
Zoeigh gave a thought to Kesril and his twisted form relaxed. He got up and stood motionless, waiting. Nisravi helped Bulnon to his feet and half carried the giant along. She held Dawnbreaker ahead of her and led them all to the tunnel that brought them in.