Morrowind belongs to Bethesda. You don't think I'm going to let Winterbell have it easy, do you?

Winterbell stepped back so fast she stumbled and nearly fell. Marayan flinched as majicka sparked around her- an instinctive defense. They both stopped dead, listening for a repeat performance, the almost-kiss forgotten. They weren't disappointed.

This time the scream was cut off midway. The source seemed to be on the other side of the lake. Winterbell grimly pulled on her shoes.
"What are you doing?" Marayan turned to her.
"I'm going to find out what's going on," she replied.
"You're not armed!"
"A mage is always armed. Are you coming too or what?"
Marayan shook his head, "Let me put on my shoes then."

They cast water-walking on themselves and hurried across the lake, their footsteps sending ripples across the still surface. When they reached the opposite shore they stopped to listen and catch their breath.
"Maybe a kagouti attacked a traveler?" Marayan suggested quietly.
"Maybe, but what kind of traveler screams like that when confronted with a kagouti? And why did they stop?"

They continued on cautiously and quietly. Winterbell was about to shrug her shoulders and suggest that they go back to Pelagiad when Marayan laid a hand on her arm and silently pointed. In a little clearing off from the road two figures appeared to be fighting. Or rather, one was attacking, slowly and deliberately, and the other just stood there.

Winterbell noticed Marayan's puzzled frown and mouthed in his ear,
"Paralysis."
She wasn't prepared for the look of sheer horror that he gave her. He gripped her arm even tighter and tried to pull her away.
"What's your problem?" she whispered, "It's just one bandit, and we can take him."
"No we can't. That's one of the Ienith brothers!"
"How do you know?"
"Torturing slaves under paralysis is their favourite pastime. And Orvas said yesterday that one had escaped."
"He's distracted, this is the perfect opportunity."
"Yeah, until the other one slips his jinkblade between your ribs. They go everywhere together, but you never see more than one. We have to get out of here, the other one could be anywhere!" He looked about wildly.
Winterbell frowned unhappily as she quickly recalculated the odds and decided she didn't like the result.

Suddenly the torturer ceased his attacks and looked around. The sound of his voice drifted indistinctly over to the watchers.
"He knows we're here! Run!" Marayan pulled Winterbell away. She looked back once more - the sinister figure had recommenced attacking his victim – and then turned to flee.

Marayan lead them back towards the lake until Winterbell pulled him off to the side.
"What are you doing? We have to get back to town."
"If we go across the lake he'll spot us, and he'll be waiting for us. We can't hope to outrun him. You're a Dren, can't you call him off?"
"No. For one thing, they're crazy, and for another, you remember what they were going to do to Ilmeni."
"All right, I'll find us somewhere to hide, follow me." Winterbell crept off along the shore.

"Heh, perfect." Her lips curled into a smile.
"Winterbell, we can't go in there, that's-"
"A tomb. And if an educated man like you doesn't want to go in there I can't imagine Ienith will either."
"But-"
Winterbell pulled open the door, "You can stay out here, if you like." Marayan glared at her for a second and then shrugged and followed her in.
"Just don't touch anything," he entreated.

They bundled into the entranceway and Winterbell magically locked the door behind them as Marayan glanced about nervously, as if expecting spectral ancestors to appear and punish their trespass.
"We should be all right in here." Marayn jumped at her voice; she was making no effort to be quiet.
"Shh!" He held up his hand. Winterbell merely looked amused.

Winterbell was going to suggest for her companion's sake that they remain near the door when the sound of footsteps echoed up from deeper in the tomb.
"Ancestral guardians," Marayan whispered.
Winterbell shook her head, "They don't wear boots," she said flatly, as magicka began to spark around her hands.
"You mean there are grave robbers in here?" Marayan sounded a lot more sure of himself, and angry.
"Maybe. You want to go and see?" He gave a determined nod and they started down the stairs.

Marayan cast a shielding spell as Winterbell eased open the door at the base of the stairs. They were anticipated.

The creature on the other side gave a distorted shout of glee and lunged at Winterbell, white eyes staring, gleaming fangs extended.
"Vampire!" Marayan shouted in surprise.
"Burn." Winterbell's expression was more frightening than the undead's. Marayan held up his hands to shield his face from the heat of Winterbell's spell. The vampire screamed again and dissolved into a pile of dust. The wall behind it was slightly charred.

"That was…I thought vampires were supposed to be tough!" Marayan sounded almost disappointed.
"They are if you're all dolled up in armour and relying on a sword." Winterbell smiled eerily, "Do you know what vampires are weak against? Mages."
"There's going to be more, isn't there?" Marayan peered down the corridor.
"A whole nest."
"Are you gonna teach me the trick then?"
"Nothing to it." She grinned.

A surprisingly short amount of time later they were in the innermost room of the tomb, the last vampire turning to dust at their feet. Winterbell was drinking a potion as Marayan stared at his hands.
"I never thought I'd kill vampires," he said wonderingly.
"They are rather pathetic creatures," Winterbell stated. "They are a lot less than the myths build them up to be."
"I believe we did a good thing, coming in here and getting rid of them," he said, more to the silent inhabitants of the tomb than to Winterbell.

Winterbell untied her moneybag and dumped the contents on the floor of the tomb.
"What are you doing?" he asked as he watched the coins roll off in all directions. Winterbell knelt down next to the remains of the vampire and carefully started scraping the ash into the bag.
"I don't care if I am on holiday. Have you any idea how much this stuff is worth?"

Marayan sat down with his back to the wall while Winterbell wandered off to collect the rest of the vampire dust. When she returned he was trying to flip one of the coins along his knuckles, will little success.
"Most productive," she declared. She tied the bag back onto her belt and started examining the offerings that decorated the urn stands and bone pits. Marayan watched her with an increasingly irritated expression on his face.

When she picked up a book and started reading it he'd finally had enough.
"Will you stop that!" he snapped.
"What? I'm only reading it."
"Yeah, and I know what you'd be doing if I wasn't here. You'd be plundering the place."
Winterbell squinted at the name on one of the urns. "Sandas. Anyone you know?" she asked rather sarcastically.
"That's not the point!" Marayan got to his feet. "It's wrong to steal from the dead. Immoral. You shouldn't do it."
"That's just what you believe. Sixth House Cultists believe that cannibalism will turn them into gods, are you going to defend them as well?"
"What do you believe then?"
"Me?" She looked rather surprised.
"Don't tell me; I already know. You believe that anything is justified as long as it benefits Winterbell."
"I'm just trying to survive, like anyone else. Not that you'd understand."
"Oh no, you don't have that excuse. Not anymore." He started pacing the length of the room, "I could buy it when you first arrived. Frankly I half-expected you to die in those first weeks. Maybe then your argument held water, but not anymore, Winterbell. Look at you, you're wealthy, respected-"
"You're making it sound like I'm murdering innocent nix-puppies. These people are dead D- Marayan. I really don't think I'm bothering them."
"You're bothering me. You're bothering all those people who visit the graves of their ancestors only to see them desecrated." He halted in front of her, his eyes flashing with anger, "Look, I'm a mage. I know how magic works. I even have some idea how necromancy works. I know dear old Auntie isn't watching over me while I sleep, but our ancestors live on. In here." He thumped his chest. "And that is how your actions are hurting people."
"Your ancestors live on in there? From what I know of your family that can't be healthy."

Marayan pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. "You know, I don't know why I care, I really don't. You, Winterbell, have no empathy. You don't care about anyone else. The world revolves around you." He wasn't even glaring at her anymore, in fact he sounded almost sad, "I'm your friend, but you're not mine. You weigh everything up, and ultimately you're the only thing that matters to you. You're the most egotistical, self-centred person I think I've ever met."
Winterbell shut the book with a snap and slammed it back on the stand. "That's unfair and you know it! Who was the one who eventually got you and your niece out of the swamps in one piece? Did you really think that you would have made it out on your own? I also agreed to help you deal with the rest of your rotten family. Suddenly this is all for my benefit now, is it?"

"You know what, I think it is. I think your using my family to get over yours. Your passionate declarations of familial freedom reek of denial to me, Winterbell. The Dunmer know the importance of the clan, even if they are raised in Cyrodil."
"You know nothing about my family." Winterbell's eyes were slitted in rage. "I'd have thought you'd have understood what it was like, being told what to do and who to be. I followed my dream; is that a crime now?"
"I followed my dream too, but I didn't turn my back on my family."
"And we all know that turned out so well for you."

They were both shouting now, circling each other in the centre of the tomb like a pair of duelling nix.
"Stop comparing. You're family isn't mine! I think the fact that you still feel so guilty says quite a bit about how you treated them."
"I accepted all the consequences of my actions. My choices, my suffering."
"Only they suffered as well-"
"They didn't have to!"
"They suffered because they loved you. I know that my family cares only for its own status. I know that my goals and ideas were nothing to them. But your family- I think they wanted the best for you, they didn't want to watch you kill yourself by practicing magic. You admitted it yourself, earlier. I would have killed for a family like that!"
"I will not give up my magic-"
"And you'll never compromise either, will you? It's your way or no way." He threw his hands up in the air, "Ultimately all you're going to hurt is yourself, Winterbell," he said, more quietly now. "Because no matter how …fascinating I find you, being around you is so unfair, I just-" He shook his head.

Winterbell looked away, "Well you don't have to be around me if you don't want to. I'd hate to force my company on you."
"I just want you to see others as people. I just want you to see me…"

The argument seemed to have burned itself out. Marayan picked up another coin and tried again to flip it over his knuckles. Winterbell leant against one of the stands, tapping her heel against it.
"You really think you've got me all figured out, don't you?"
"Hardly," he replied. "I have no idea where you are most of the time, you just come and go like Kaijit Tom. I'm still not sure how you amassed all that money, and all those things." He frowned thoughtfully. "You need a bigger house, that's for sure, although I still don't see…"

He trailed off for the second time and Winterbell got such a sudden sense of foreboding she nearly felt sick. He let the coin drop to the floor and Winterbell watched as he fitted things together in his head.

"No…that's crazy." He looked up at her and their eyes met, her gaze silently daring him to say another word. He scrambled to his feet, still looking shell-shocked.
"I don't believe it," he was nodding to himself as if the solution to a particularly knotty problem had just presented itself. "I don't believe it," he repeated, beginning to pace around her, his amazement quickly being replaced by anger.

Winterbell still wasn't prepared for the venom in his tone when he finally stopped and faced her. He pulled his lips back in a snarl and spat,
"You…traitorous, Telvanni, bitch!"