Chapter 14 - Return to Castle Volkihar 2: Oblivion Boogaloo
"Remind me again when I agreed to this plan." Yang griped and moaned, as she'd been doing ever since she'd been convinced to take care of her idiot and the vampire as they'd made the suicidal decision to sneak back into Castle Volkihar. "Because this whole plan is insane. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate this plan?"
"Only a thousand times, Yang." Serana drawled in exasperation, rolling her eyes, as she searched the room, looking for a way to Valerica's study. Her eyes studied the room's interior, and compared it to dimly-recalled ancient knowledge of its layout, of better times in her childhood, of grinding plants into paste and the bitter scents of boiling reagents. She knew the study was on the top floor, and thusly that there should have been a way up somewhere. But where was it?
Jaune, meanwhile, recognized the worry masked by the impatience, and decided to let Serana handle the searching, while he leaned towards his first friend in Skyrim, and tried reassuring her: "Yang... I know its risky, but this really was our best lead at finding Serana's mother and her scroll..."
"I know that, Vomit Boy." Yang snapped, enjoying the comforting presence of his proximity. "If I didn't, I'd never have let you come here in the first place! And before you ask, no, it's not that I don't trust Serana, or that I think she's leading us into a trap... she's had plenty of time, in the past few weeks, to betray us if she wanted to.
"It's just that... we're in the heart of the Volkihar clan's power, with two of the Scrolls, looking for the last one. If we get caught, it's over. Frankly, we got lucky the fog covering the Sea of Ghosts stopped us from getting spotted as we approached the castle."
"I know, but on the bright side... there's no way there's going to be vampires waiting for us in her mother's study... except for her mother, hopefully." Jaune added sheepishly. "After all, even Serana didn't know that the weird moondial thing hid a secret staircase to this part of the castle!"
"And we didn't close the secret staircase behind us, did we?"
"If we did, how would we get out?" Serana retorted, joining the conversation.
"Just saying, our rear's exposed right now." Yang defended.
"Speed and stealth are our best tools on this infiltration, Yang." Serana replied, before conceding: "You were right; if we get caught, it's over. So quit your whining and help me find the Oblivion-damned way up before we do get caught."
Yang sighed, but decided to follow the vampire's lead. She'd been adventuring with Serana long enough by now to know that Serana was as trustworthy as a vampire could get, and she did genuinely want to stop her father. Turning to Jaune, she asked: "Any ideas from your world, Vomit Boy?"
"Hey, don't look at me!" Jaune protested, waving his hands. "The closest I've ever gotten to ancient ruins and secret passages in my world is in movies and stories."
""Movies?""
"And I doubt this world, and Serana's mother, have something like fake books rotating a bookcase, or a lever disguised as a candlestick." Jaune ignored their question as he walked over to the fireplace, hitting one of the candlesticks on the wall above it to make his point.
The candlestick swung downwards with a small "click".
"No..." Jaune whispered, horrified.
A groaning sound could be heard echoing throughout the room.
"No..." Jaune echoed louder, staring at the candlestick like it had stabbed him.
The wall behind the fireplace slid upwards slowly, revealing a secret stairway up.
"No!" Jaune wailed, unable to say anything else.
"You did it, Jaune!" Serana excitedly congratulated Jaune, clapping him on the back, before rushing up the stairs.
"Why is this world so stupid?!" Jaune sobbed softly, sinking to the floor in disbelief
"You know, there was a time when you would've been excited by things like this..." Yang reflected, kneeling by his side, and she recalled his wide-eyed excitement at some of the traps and mechanisms in the old Nordic ruins.
"Yeah, when I first came to Skyrim, maybe..." Jaune protested weakly, though he couldn't help but smile at her as he remembered those days.
Simpler times, just over a month ago, where there'd been no vampire conspiracy or assassin cults. It'd just been a naive innocent Jaune and Yang the badass Dragonborn, though they hadn't known it back then, versus bandits and the returning dragons.
When everything had been just like a story, a tale of adventure his folks would have told him before bed, and every new pressure plate, tripwire, and chain lever was new and exciting.
But that boy had died with his first kill, for better or for worse. He wasn't nearly as innocent as before, and definitely not as naive (or so he hoped). Then again, he was still Jaune Arc. He still wanted to be a hero, to help others.
And he still had a tongue and enough wits to attempt to riposte her words with a simple: "Do you think the Volkihar and the guys who made all the ancient Nord ruins hired the same designer?"
Yang held back a snort of laughter at his words (and the mental image it created), and instead slapped him on the back as she made for the stairs. Jaune flashed a grin back at her, knowing it was just her being her, and got off his knees to follow the pair.
His good cheer died the moment he entered Valerica's study.
It wasn't that Valerica's alchemical laboratory wasn't impressive; the only set-up he'd seen that had been more impressive had been the Tower of Mzark, and he would've been impressed by even an amateur student's set-up with how little he'd seen of magic.
The problem was the utter lack of maternal vampires in the room, and rows upon rows of bookcases.
"Look at all this!" Serana gasped, looking around at the room, and ignoring the pair. Valerica had clearly upgraded the study in her absence; she definitely didn't recognize the cracked stone in the center of the study. "She must have spent years collecting these components. And what's this thing? I'm not sure about this circle, but it's obviously... something. Let's take a look around. There has to be something here that tells us where she's gone. My mother was meticulous about her research. If we can find her notes, there might be some hints in there."
"Ten septims say the first book you pull opens another secret entrance." Yang teased under her breath, nudging Jaune with her elbow.
Jaune couldn't help but whimper.
"Come on... I'm sure my mother wouldn't be foolish enough to use the same trick twice." Serana rolled her eyes. "She was hiding from her husband, a centuries-old powerful vampire, after all."
"Any idea what her notes would look like?" Jaune asked, taking a closer look at the closest bookcase.
"A normal journal, I guess?" Serana answered, not knowing exactly how to answer Jaune's question. "But mother was clever; I'm sure she'd have done something like cut out the middle of a bigger book and hidden it within. We'd probably have to search every book in this room, hoping we got lucky."
"..." Jaune pulled out a small leather-bound journal he'd spotted, between two larger and fancy-looking hardcovers, and tossed it to Yang to read. Yang caught it out of the air, opened it, and immediately closed it, trying to stifle her cackles of laughter.
"Don't tell me..." Serana groaned, rubbing her temples with her hand.
"Yup." Yang drawled, tossing the book over to the vampire. "It seems your mother really believed in "hiding in plain sight"."
"Well... she didn't get caught all this while..." Serana weakly defended her mother.
"Anyway, what's this "Soul Cairn" thing that she mentions?" Yang asked, curious. She'd skimmed through the notes, and had noticed the word pop up a few times, underlined.
"I only know what she told me." Serana said, trying to recall distant memories and minor conversations. "She had a theory about soul gems. That the souls inside of them don't just vanish when they're used... they end up in the Soul Cairn."
"... the souls inside of soul gems?" Jaune echoed, ignorant the principles of magic. Yang winced; she hadn't told Jaune about the principles behind enchantments and magic for a very good reason.
Fortunately, Serana caught her look, because she coughed, and gave him the vaguest explanation she could, rather than going into another detailed lecture: "Soul gems can be used to capture souls... "soul energy" with a spell when a... "target" dies. That same soul energy can then be used to power enchantments."
"Oh, soul energy... is that why I can charge the enchantments with Aura too?" Jaune asked, slowly understanding the principle (and missing the subtext).
"Something like that." Serana replied hastily, before changing the subject: "Anyway, the Soul Cairn is home to very powerful beings. Necromancers send them soul energy, and receive powers of their own in return. My mother spent a lot of time trying to contact them directly, to travel to the Soul Cairn itself."
"Any idea if she succeeded?" Yang spoke up.
"Well, that circle in the center of the room is definitely some type of portal." Serana said, before flipping through the notebook. "If I'm reading this right, there's a formula here that should give us safe passage into the Soul Cairn."
"That's convenient. What do we need?" Jaune glanced at all the preserved reagents in the room as he asked. He didn't recognize most of the ingredients lying around, and the few he did made him wish he didn't (how in Oum's name a cut-off giant's toe hadn't rotted away after centuries lying on a table was beyond him), but he still looked around, just in case there was a sign saying "Portal Formula Ingredients here".
"A handful of soul gem shards, some finely-ground bone meal, a good bit of purified void salts..." Serana read out loud, before pausing, and cusing: "Oh... damn it..."
"What's wrong?"
"We're also going to need a sample of her blood." Serana said morosely, closing the book. "Which... if we could get that, we wouldn't even be trying to do this in the first place."
"There has to be another way!" Yang snarled, unwilling to give up, not after they'd come so far.
Jaune, however, remembered movies from Remnant once more, remembered that it had worked at least once, and pointed out: "You share her blood..."
"Hmmm. Not bad." Serana conceded after some thought. "We'd better hope that's good enough. Mistakes with these kind of portals can be... gruesome. Anyway, enough of that. Let's get started."
Jaune and Yang blanched at her words, and exchanged a look, but decided to search the room for the three specified items.
Fortunately, it didn't take long, as Serana's mother had kept her study well-stocked, and soon enough a stone vessel overlooking the inactive portal was filled with purified void salts, finely-grund bone meal, and soul gem shards.
Serana stared at the vessel with a complicated expression on her face, and coolly said: "Well, the rest is up to me. Are you two ready to go? I'm not entirely sure what this thing is going to do when I add my blood."
Jaune and Yang noticed that Serana was stalling, and Jaune asked: "Can I ask you something first?"
"Of course." Serana smiled at Jaune, fighting to hide her relief. "What is it?"
"What... what will you do if we find your mother?" Jaune led with a question, knowing it was better to confront the issue now.
"I've been asking myself the same thing since we came back to the castle." Serana admitted, looking away. "She was so sure of what we did to my father, I couldn't help but go along with her. I never thought of the cost."
"It sounds like she was pretty selfish." Yang bluntly pointed out, thinking that at least Raven hadn't tossed her into a cave for a few hundred years.
"Yang!" Jaune hissed under his breath, elbowing her slightly.
"She wasn't, always." Serana softly replied, before conceding: "But I think you're right. She was practically smirking as we left home. Almost like she was proud of herself. Like she didn't want to just stop my father... she wanted to stick it to him, too."
"We won't know until we find her." Jaune reassured her, placing a hand on her shoulder.
"Yes... yes, you're right. I'm sorry. I just didn't expect anyone to care how I felt about her. Thank you." Serana replied, leaning against his hand, gripping it with her smaller fingers, and the pair pretended they didn't hear the quiet sob Serana fought down. Eventually, she regained her composure, and asked: "Are we ready then?"
"Let's get that portal open." Yang nodded at her, and she nodded back, before lightly biting into her wrist with her fangs. A quick flick of her perforated wrist over the vessel shook a few drops of blood down onto the reagents, and as the two came into contact, the room began shaking. A purple glow began emanating from beneath the cracks in the stone circle.
"By the blood of my ancestors..." Serana breathed, as the circle began fragmenting itself, and the fragments began floating and flying around, eventually forming a staircase leading to a dark void that occasionally belched ethereal purple flames. "She actually did it... created a portal to the Soul Cairn. Incredible."
Jaune looked at the gaping hole in reality, and wondered if "incredible" was really the best word to use. He'd have it described it as something closer to "ominous", "unnatural", or "terrifying".
Yang, meanwhile, looked on, unimpressed. Hermaeus Mora's breach into reality had been far more otherworldly, after all.
Jaune took a tentative step forward, but Yang stopped him. He looked at her, curious, and she weakly joked: "Come now, Vomit Boy. Haven't you ever heard of "ladies first"?"
Jaune only smiled at her, knowing that she just didn't want him to jump in first. At the same time, though, he knew that he was the one best-suited to take point. After all, he had Aura.
Yang stepped towards the portal before he could stop her, however, but as soon as her foot came into contact with the portal, purple flames reached out, trying to engulf her, and she pulled back with a cry.
"Are you alright?" Serana asked, as Jaune rushed to her side, and began healing her with his Aura. "That looked painful."
"What was that?!" Yang demanded, shuddering at the experience. The only way she could describe the experience was that the portal had tried to rip her soul out by force.
"Now that I think about it... I should have expected that." Serana reflected, before wincing as Yang glared at her. "Sorry. It's hard to describe. The Soul Cairn is... well, hungry, for lack of a better word. It's trying to take your life essence as payment."
"... so there's no way in?" Yang asked, glaring at the portal.
"There might be..." Serana said, thinking about it, before wincing again as she added: "... but I don't think you're going to like it. Vampires aren't counted among the living. I could probably go through there without a problem."
"Are you saying we need to become vampires?"
"Not your first choice, I'd guess." Serana said jokingly, trying to lighten the mood.
Yang only gave her a blank stare in return.
"I guess we could just "pay the toll" another way." Serana offered, pulling out a black soul gem. "It wants soul energy, so we give it soul energy. Yours."
"Wouldn't that kill me?" Yang yelped, knowing how the Soul Trap spell worked.
"My mother taught me a trick or two. I could partially soul trap you, and offer that gem to the Ideal Masters. It might be enough to satisfy them." Serana explained. "It would make you a bit weaker when we travel through the Soul Cairn, but we might be able to fix that once we're inside. Maybe."
"These are our only options?" Yang looked crestfallen.
"I'm sorry. I wish I knew a better way, something that would be easier for you. Just know that... whatever path you choose, I won't think any less of you. Sometimes things just have to be done. I know that better than anybody."
"... what about me?" Jaune suggested, having finished healing Yang.
""No!"" Serana and Yang immediately shouted, and as Jaune was taken aback, Serana quickly explained: "Your Aura's tied to your soul, right? In the worst-case scenario, the spell could destroy your Aura, or at the very least significantly weaken it."
Jaune shuddered at the mental image, but he couldn't just stand back and watch Yang suffer between a rock and a hard place. After all, he hadn't let Pyrrha do that. "... what if I just filled that gem with my Aura instead?"
Serana and Yang both stared at him. Eventually, Serana spoke: "That... might work... but are you sure you'd have enough Aura? These gems take... a whole soul's worth of energy to fill."
"Well, my partner always said I had a very large Aura pool." Jaune shrugged, gripping the soul gem in Serana's hand, and he focused, channeling his Aura into the crystal.
After half a minute of concentration, with no sign of exhaustion or letting go of the crystal, a concerned Serana quickly inspected the soul gem, before slapping it out of his hand with a cry, yelling: "Are you mad?!"
"What'd I do?!"
"I just asked for the gem to be partially-filled!" Serana yelled, waving the black crystal in front of Jaune's face. "You gave it more soul energy than most people even have! How are you even still alive?!"
"I just poured Aura into the crystal like you said!" Jaune defended, as Yang glared at him from behind.
Serana just stared at him, using her enhanced senses to study him. It was true; he wasn't actually showing any signs of exertion or fatigue; no elevated heart rate, no deep breathing, no flushing of cheeks. Finally, she sighed, and carelessly tossed the soul gem into the stone vessel, saying: "Well, I was worried that the Ideal Masters might consider a partial soul insufficient, but I guess that's not going to be the problem."
"... look, my Aura will regenerate over time anyway, what's the big deal?"
"And what if anything happens before it fully regenerates?" Yang snapped at him. "We're in the middle of Castle Volkihar, with no backup, about to head into a realm of Oblivion, Vomit Boy."
"..." Jaune couldn't refute her point.
"Whatever. What's done is done. Let's just get through the portal and see if it works." Yang finally relented, looking away from him. As he made for the portal, however, she wheeled around and glared at him once more, daring him to try. Jaune got the hint and backed up, holding his hands up in surrender, and she nodded once before taking a tentative step toward the portal, poking it with her boot.
"It's not trying to suck my soul out..." Yang confirmed, not feeling the same drain she had earlier, and the three stepped into the purple abyss, and crossed dimensions.
The first thing Yang noticed was the silence. There were no ambient sounds, no chirping birds, crawling insects, blazing flames; the world was as quiet as a grave. She'd heard descriptions of Oblivion from historical records of survivors of the Oblivion Crisis, but this was clearly a different kind of hell. She could barely make out humanoid figures in the distance, through the thin mists, but even they weren't making any noise.
The next thing she noticed, as her vision slowly adjusted to the new world, was the sky. The sky was purple, like the usual fires of Oblivion. Massive glowing crystals floated in the sky, reminding her of soul gems (but much larger), illuminated by brief flashes of lightning in the sky. Oddly enough, there was no thunder.
Finally, as she looked down, she noticed the landscape below her. Dead trees dotted the landscape, and large stone walls and towers loomed over the horizon. She didn't recognize the architecture, but it looked ancient.
"It looks like pictures of the Grimmlands..." Jaune spoke up first, as he studied the Soul Cairn.
"The "Grimmlands"? What's that?" Serana asked, more to take her mind off of the sight in front of her than anything else.
"It's... what we call the lands that belong to the Grimm." Jaune explained, trying to remember Doctor Oobleck's classes. "Not just places that were overrun, but places that, as far as we know from legend, have always belonged to the Grimm. According to my history professor, its certainly possible that humans once inhabited the Grimmlands, but no one's ever survived an expedition..."
"And how much of your world is Grimmlands?"
"I don't know... easily two-thirds of the total land mass?" Jaune shrugged, still unable to take his eyes off of the sight below them. The portal had brought them to the top of a floating circular stone staircase, giving him a good view of the place, but he didn't know Valerica, so he couldn't tell which of the structures she might have been hiding within, or even if she'd decided to stay inside a building rather than simply digging a hole or camping out in the middle of nowhere. He could certainly see a campfire in the distance, the orange glow standing out against the desolate landscape even at this distance.
"The world looks dead..." Yang finally murmured, before grinning at Serana, and asking: "Seems kind of fitting, that your mother would be hiding here. You know, dead world, undead lady?"
Jaune and Serana both just groaned at the horrible attempt at humor, and Jaune wondered if it was simply a multiversal inevitability that Yang Xiao-Long and bad jokes would mix. Then he noticed her clenched fist, her furrowed brows, and he shook his head. He didn't call her out, though; he knew from her stories that Yang did not like Oblivion, and this realm of Oblivion was creepy as hell to him, as it were.
Instead, he walked past her, lightly bumping against her shoulder with his own, knocking her out of her funk, and as she looked at him he grinned at her.
Yang sighed and shook her head, not wanting to talk about her concerns, not wanting to let Jaune know that he was being targeted, let alone what he was being targeted by.
Serana noticed the exchange between the pair, but declined to comment. Regardless of her feelings towards the pair, she was so close, so close to finding out about the prophecy that had destroyed her family and ruined her unlife, so close to stopping her father... so close to finally finding her mother. So close to finally getting some answers.
She still couldn't help but hesitate, ignoring her growing emotions for the first beings in Tamriel to treat her like an actual person in centuries, but she figured she'd have time, once her family matters were resolved, to deal with it.
After all, as a vampire, she had nothing but time.
-VALERICA'S HIDEOUT, THIRTY MINUTES LATER-
"Mother?!" Serana called out, as a figure stepped out of the central structure, and she rushed towards her, pressing her hands against the magical barrier. "Is it really you?
Behind her, Yang and Jaune slowly followed, pleased to see that Serana's hunch had been correct. Serana had caught the faint shimmer of the barrier from the portal with her enhanced vampiric night vision, too distant for Yang and Jaune to notice, and they'd figured that it was the best lead they had. And so, they'd made the arduous trek through the Soul Cairn, beyond the walls, towards the central arena.
Along the way, they'd met many figures, figures that Jaune could only describe as shadows of souls. Broken figures, no longer weeping or begging for mercy, having given up all hope. He'd tried approaching them, against Yang's advice, but most of them could only repeat a few lines, trapped in an endless loop. Eventually, no matter how much he'd wanted to help, he'd been forced to accept that there was nothing he could do for these shadows, little more than echoes of the soul energy that they'd been leeched from.
"Maker... it can't be." The older woman gasped, staring at Serana as if she were looking at a ghost. "Serana?"
"I can't believe it!" Serana exclaimed with relief, ignoring her mother's question, and words began flowing out her mouth like water through a broken dam: "How do we get inside? We have to talk."
"Serana." Valerica's voice coldly cut in, and Serana's next words died in her throat.
Jaune stared at Valerica in shock; Serana had mentioned that her mother hadn't been parent of the year, but Jaune had assumed that Valerica had at least been better than Harkon. After all, Serana had sided with her! But no, Harkon of all people had shown Serana more affection than Valerica, and he'd been mostly obsessed with her Elder Scroll!
Beside him, Yang's clenched fist tightened. Sure, she and Serana were hardly on the best of terms, what with Serana being a bloodsucking undead daedra worshipper with an unhealthy interest in her best friend, but the two had at least developed a mutual understanding, over the weeks they'd spent working together. It didn't sit right with her, watching Serana get treated like that; she could overlook Isran, since Isran was a gruff paranoid fanatic who loathed all vampires in general, but Valerica was supposed to be her mother, for Mara's sake! If it hadn't been for Jaune gripping her hand (and the magical barrier separating Valerica from them), she might have been tempted to punch Valerica in the jaw.
"What are you doing here? Where's your father?" Valerica asked, ignoring Serana's crestfallen face as if nothing had happened, as if they hadn't been apart for centuries.
"He doesn't know we're here." Serana quickly answered, trying to appease Valerica. "I don't have time to explain-"
"I must have failed." Valerica interrupted her daughter, focusing solely on her obsession. "Harkon's found a way to decipher the prophecy, hasn't he?"
"No, you've got it all wrong." Serana pleaded, trying to get her mother to listen. "We're here to complete the prophecy our way, not his."
""We're"?" Valerica echoed, staring at Serana. "Wait a moment... you've brought a stranger here? Have you lost your mind?"
"No, you don't..." Serana tried to explain, but Valerica shot a glare at her, silencing her, and her voice fell away like a stiff breeze.
"Will you just shut up and listen?" A voice cut through, interrupting the mother and daughter pair.
Valerica and Serana turned to Yang, but Yang similarly was stunned speechless, her mouth hanging open, as she stared at her mild-mannered and quiet blonde companion.
Jaune ignored the stares he was getting and stepped forward, glaring at Valerica the whole time. Finally, he spoke: "What in Oum's name is wrong with you?"
"Wha-?"
"What. In Oum's name. Is wrong with you?" Jaune repeated, folding his arms across his chest. He'd have jabbed his finger at her to punctuate each statement, but there was an inconvenient barrier between them. "This is the first time you've seen your daughter in, what, centuries? And all you can do is berate your daughter?"
"Berate?!" Valerica sputtered, the audacity of the stranger's words snapping her out of her shock. "I am stopping her from making a mistake! For her own sake!"
"Was locking her in a cave for centuries "for her own sake" as well?"
"It was to protect her!" Valerica's chest heaved with emotion, as Jaune's words bit into her, but she took a deep breath, before recomposing herself. Drawing herself up, she looked down her nose at him, and imperiously sneered: "Anyway, what would you know about her safety, her protection, vampire hunter?"
"How did you know I was a vampire hunter?" Jaune's rant was derailed by Valerica's declaration.
"Why else would a mortal travel with Serana?" Valerica seized the initiative, and pressed on. "It pains me to think you'd travel with Serana under the guise of her protector in an effort to hunt me down, almost as much as it pains me to think my daughter was naive enough to fall for it."
"A guise? Is that what you think we're doing?!" Jaune roared, unable to control himself at the insult. "We're travelling with Serana because we're friends, because we're working together, because we're trying to save this damned world! And what would we know about her protection?! Who do you think rescued her from her tomb?! Who do you think has been keeping her safe since she's been awake?!"
"Coming from one who murders vampires as a trade, I find it hard to believe your intentions are noble." Valerica replied loftily, fighting not to repeat her mistake, to lose her composure. Only Serana noticed the slight twitch under her mother's eye, a sign that Jaune was getting through to Valerica. "Serana and I have sacrificed everything to prevent Harkon from completing the prophecy. I would have expected her to explain that to you."
"She did. She explained everything. About a stupid prophecy, some scrolls, her parents going nuts, and her getting locked in a tomb for a few hundred years." Jaune nodded as he summarized, ignoring Valerica as she bared her fangs in response. "Why else do you think Serana and two mere mortals would risk everything to sneak into Castle Volkihar, right under Harkon's very nose, and jump through a portal to Oblivion? We're here to stop your husband, and for that we need your scroll."
"Not that you'd understand." Yang added, backing Jaune up. "After all, you locked up your daughter with her scroll in Dimhollow while you took the other one and hid in Oblivion, just to stop him from getting the scrolls. Rather than fighting back. Coward."
"You think I'd have the audacity to place my own daughter in that tomb for the protection of her Elder Scroll alone?!" Valerica shouted, spit flying out of her mouth, and Serana watched the spittle drip down the barrier with complicated emotions. "The scrolls are merely a means to an end. The key to the Tyranny of the Sun is Serana herself."
"What?" Serana exclaimed, surprised by the sudden revelation.
"When I fled Castle Volkihar, I fled with two Elder Scrolls." Valerica explained tiredly. "The scroll I presume you found with Serana speaks of Auriel and his arcane weapon, Auriel's Bow. The second scroll declares that "The Blood of Coldharbour's Daughter will blind the eye of the Dragon"."
"Coldharbour's Daughter... Daughters of Coldharbour... female pure-blooded vampires..." Serana murmured, as the pieces slowly began to fall into place.
Yang figured it out first, and asked: "The Tyranny of the Sun requires Serana's blood?"
"Now you're beginning to see why I wanted to protect Serana, and why I've kept the other Elder Scroll as far from her as possible." Valerica nodded, pleased she was getting through to the trio (and shutting the irritating blondes up).
Jaune's face paled, as he finally understood her words. He doubted that Harkon would even hesitate to sacrifice Serana for the sake of the prophecy. But the idea of a father killing his daughter just fueled Jaune's outrage, and he firmly spat: "Over my dead body."
"And countless others, if he had to." Valerica replied easily. "But, for the sake of the argument, how exactly do you plan on completing the prophecy without the death of my daughter?"
"We'll kill him, instead." Yang bluntly replied as she stepped in.
"If you believe that, then you're a bigger fool than I originally suspected." Valerica rolled her eyes at the blondes. "Don't you think I weighed that option before I enacted my plans?"
"And what, exactly, was your fucking plan?" Yang spat sarcastically, glaring greatswords at the arrogant vampire. "Lock Serana in a barely-defended cave for a few hundred years, while you hid in Oblivion? While, what? Your husband continues to expand his influence and search for you two? What did you think was going to happen? Would the obsessed undead just get bored, give up, maybe die of old age? Were you maybe waiting for one of the members of his court to put a stake in his back or openly challenge him? If so, great fucking plan. That'd just leave you with a vampire craftier or more powerful than Harkon to deal with."
"You dare?!"
"Not that we'd even know your plans, though, since it's not like you told Serana anything, or even asked her for her opinion when you did it." Yang ignored Valerica's challenge, in favor of spiting her one more time.
"You care nothing for Serana or our plight!" Valerica shouted back, her composure finally cracking, and she swiped at Yang furiously, hand bouncing off the barrier. "You're still just vampire hunters at heart. You're here because we're abominations in your mind. Evil creatures that need to be destroyed."
"You're wrong." A quiet feminine voice spoke up, for the first time since the conversation had gotten heated up.
"Serana?" Valerica turned around to stare at her daughter, incredulous.
"You're wrong." Serana repeated, strength filling her voice. "They're not here because we're just abominations. They're here to help us."
"Help us?" Valerica repeated in disbelief. "Serana, these strangers align themselves with those that would hunt you down and slay you like an animal! Why do you think they're here to help us?"
"These "strangers" has done more for me in the brief time I've known them than you've done in centuries!" Serana snarled, the fire in her eyes and steel in her voice surprising all of them. Yang nodded approvingly, though, glad to see the vampire she was used to verbally sparring with had found her backbone once again.
"How dare you!" Valerica shouted back. "I gave up everything I cared about to protect you from that fanatic you call a father!"
"Yes, he's a fanatic... he's changed." Serana admitted, but refused to back down, and swiftly continued: "But he's still my father. Why can't you understand how that makes me feel?"
"Oh, Serana. If you'd only open your eyes." Valerica chastised, trying to ignore the unease growing in her chest. "The moment your father discovers your role in the prophecy, that he needs your blood, you'd be in terrible danger."
"So to protect me you decided to shut me away from everything I cared about?" Serana shot back, refusing to budge an inch. "You never asked me if hiding me in that tomb was the best course of action, you just expected me to follow you blindly. Both of you were obsessed with your own paths. Your motivations might have been different, but in the end..."
"Serana..." Valerica whispered, her unbeating heart breaking for the first time in centuries.
Serana squeezed her eyes shut, ignoring the hot feeling welling up behind them, and forced the words out of her throat: "In the end, I'm still just a pawn to you, too.
"I wanted us to be a family again, you know." Serana admitted quietly, in the silence that followed. Before Valerica could say anything, though, Serana looked up resolutely, and continued: "But I don't know if we can ever have that. I certainly don't think so. Maybe we don't deserve that kind of happiness. Maybe it isn't for us. But we have to stop him. Before he goes too far. And to do that, we need the Elder Scroll."
"I'm..." Valerica tried, before choking up.
Jaune and Yang exchanged a look, and subtly took a few steps back, deciding to give the pair some space. Whatever happened next, they both agreed that it was best resolved between Serana and her egg donor. If Valerica had been more stubborn, they wouldn't have backed down, but the two felt that Serana had gotten through to Valerica, and decided to let the mother and daughter talk the rest out by themselves.
"So..." Yang awkwardly began, once they couldn't hear Serana's and Valerica's cries. "I didn't expect you to blow up at her like that, Vomit Boy."
"Serana's a friend; there's no way I could let her mother speak to her like that." Jaune replied with a shrug. "Besides, it was better that I say it, than let you try punching her..."
"Of course you noticed." Yang whispered, not unfondly.
"Honestly, I was pretty tempted to punch her, too." Jaune admitted, trying not to get flustered at her tone. "I just thought about, what if that was me or my sisters, and that was my mom, and I just... lost it."
"You miss them, don't you?" Yang asked uneasily, placing a hand on his shoulder.
"A lot. They meant the world to me, you know." Jaune admitted, leaning into her comforting grip. "Sometimes, I just wish I could have said goodbye to them, one last time... but I couldn't risk it, when I was preparing to leave. If they'd caught even a hint that I was planning to run away to Beacon, they'd have grounded me for a decade."
Yang frowned, but didn't reply. Eventually, Jaune asked: "And what about you? Doesn't seeing that make you want to confront Raven all the more?"
Yang shifted awkwardly, not having told Jaune that she'd all but given up on even thinking about finding her egg donor anymore. Instead, she forced a laugh, and joked: "What, and have a sappy moment like those two? No thank you. Though, it might be worth it to see you blow up at her like that, Vomit Boy!"
Jaune flushed at her words, and was thankfully spared from having to reply as Serana and Valerica called them back.
"We've... come to an understanding." Serana explained, as the pair returned. "For now."
"For Serana's sake, I'll assist you in any way that I can." Valerica followed up. "I'll give you the Elder Scroll, but I'm trapped here. Fortunately, you're in a position to breach the barrier that surrounds these ruins."
"... you didn't cast the barrier?" Yang asked, as Jaune felt a familiar feeling of dread rising.
"The Ideal Masters unleashed their Keepers to destroy me, after our negotiations went... poorly. Valerica explained, as the wind howled ominously around them. "I managed to hold them at bay, while I retreated to these ruins, and since the Keepers were unable to claim my soul, they had their minions construct a barrier that I'd never be able to breach."
"What do you need us to do?" Serana asked.
"You need to locate the tallest of the rocky spires that surround these ruins. At their bases, the barrier's energy is being drawn from unfortunate souls that have been exiled here. Destroy the Keepers that are tending them, and it should bring the barrier down."
"... that's all?" Yang asked incredulously. Jaune quietly nodded; it sounded too easy.
"Oh, one more word of warning." Valerica added as an afterthought, almost inaudibly as the wind rose around them. "There's a dragon that calls itself Durnehviir roaming the Cairn. Be wary of him. The Ideal Masters have charged him with overseeing the Keepers, and will undoubtedly intervene if you're perceived as a threat."
"... do you hear something?" Serana asked, looking around in confusion as the wind pressure became almost unbearable.
Jaune and Yang listened, as the oppressive silence of the Soul Cairn was filled with a familiar sound; the beating of great wings.
As the two vampires and two humans watched in a mixture of dread and exasperation, a greenish-grey, half-rotten dragon swooped down from the sky, dropping three giant skeletons clad in dragonbone armor with it, and the four newcomers wordlessly sized up the four figures, Valerica whispered: "It's Durnehviir... he's here..."
Jaune and Yang simply sighed, and as Yang cracked her knuckles, Serana charged her Destruction magic, and Jaune drew his sword and shield, Jaune found himself wondering why Skyrim seemed to love messing with him.
Author's Note: Sorry for the late chapter, work's been busier the past weeks than usual. I tried to make up for it with a longer chapter, but... well...
Yang's whining because, well... that's kind of how some people cope with shit they can't really do anything about. She knows that Valerica's study is probably the best bet to find a trail to Valerica and her scroll, but that still means sneaking into Castle Volkihar. Best option is still shitty. But she's a Nord; she knows honor and duty as well. Also, the only other way Nords seem to cope is with ludicrous amounts of alcohol, and I don't think Yang's going to get drunk while sneaking into Harkon's castle.
Another thing to take note of, besides Serana's obvious enthusiasm in finally meeting her mother again, is that, to her, this is basically her first adventure. She is an old-time Nord, after all (like, from hundreds of years ago Skyrim), the guilty vampire seeking to save the world from her father. She may not be a good person, by modern Skyrim standards (she was also a Daedra worshipper after all, and not one of the decent Daedric Princes either, and is also a vampire), but by her standards its practically redemption.
Also, I found it weird that, in canon, Serana doesn't actually know about the existence of Valerica's study. She's supposed to be a lonely child who spent her youth wandering about the castle, memorizing every nook and cranny, and she was tutored by Valerica in alchemy and necromancy. I can rationalize the moondial and the secret passages as (relatively) new additions to the castle, made by Valerica in the time between sealing Serana away and disappearing into the Soul Cairn herself, but beyond that is a bit hard to swallow... so yeah, in this story, she knows that it exists, but she doesn't know the way to it.
Serana and Yang take care at the start to explain that the Soul Cairn (and Soul Trapping) takes soul energy and not the whole soul because, even if it's just a minor misdirection, its a distinction with a difference to Jaune. If its just soul energy, Jaune would be able to rationalize it as being similar in principle to Aura depletion (as he does). If they told him the entire soul gets trapped (and thusly doomed to a desolate afterlife), he'd be understandably horrified by the difference. After all, he can survive Aura loss, but being denied even the possibility of life after death is something else entirely.
Hell, he'd probably swear off using enchanted weapons ever again, simply because it could be powered by a dead puppy or child, and he's not going to care that it might be ethically-powered by white soul gems instead of black soul gems (the difference between the two being that white souls gems can only hold the souls of non-sentient creatures, while black soul gems can hold any souls, including those of sentient creatures); a soul's a soul, and even a skeever probably deserves eternal rest after a short life of spreading plague and stealing cheese.
And seriously, who didn't see me using this as a way to get him into the Soul Cairn? Not like I've been drawing parallels between Aura and souls for chapters. Also not like I've been having him channel Aura into weapons just like how soul gems power weapon enchantments. And yes, his Aura will recover as per normal. It's not like I was going to turn him into a vampire just for the sake of a single plot point...
As for why Yang was so freaked out by being in the Soul Cairn... it's more like just being in Oblivion in general, especially after her meeting with Hermaeus Mora. She knows that she's not in Apocrypha, Hermaeus Mora's personal realm, sure, but she still doesn't want to expose Jaune to the daedra if she can help it. In that regard, she's probably lucky that she's dealing with the Ideal Masters, some of the least proactive of the Daedra. If she'd gone to Mephala (the Prince of Deceit and Lies who has a cult of assassins dedicated to her), or Hircine (Lord of the Hunt), for example... things would not go well, to put it lightly.
Honestly, I was tempted to just skip Serana's reunion with her mother. It would have been so much easier... but I also don't want to short-change any characters I write. And sure, she may have the idea that her mother was a bitch who abandoned her, but unlike Yang, who never actually knew Raven, Serana was actually raised by Valerica. There's still a connection there beyond mere blood, hence why she's still relieved to see Valerica relatively safe. Of course, once the relief passes, the concern fades away, and in its wake anger floods in. Is it logical? Not really. It's family; emotional ties are rarely logical.
And yeah, I decided to let Jaune be the one who lays into them. After all, of the three, he's the only one with anything remotely approaching a healthy family; Serana has no one, and Yang only had Tai. And, by the sounds of things, Jaune and his family genuinely were close, up until he ran away to join Beacon. Yes, Yang is the more fiery-tempered, but her anger surpassed "criticism" and went straight to "punching", which she was focused on restraining with Jaune's help. In other words, Yang hits her boiling point first, but Jaune's the one who snaps first.
Also, if the Serana-Valerica reunion seems familiar, I basically cribbed it from my first Skyrim story. Sure, Yang's no Marius, and Jaune's no Lydia, but the concept doesn't really change.
As for why the Keepers and Durnehviir mobilize in this story, unlike in canon where they just sit in their towers and wait to get picked off... in-universe, let's just say they're intrigued by Jaune's Aura-filled soul gem, a once-in-millennia event which is more valuable than even a vampire necromancer's soul. As for my personal reason? Writing about them travelling from tower to tower and having three mini-boss fights before one big boss fight is boring. Also, the Repaer, the closest thing to an avatar the Ideal Masters have, is keeping itself safe and hidden away; the Ideal Masters aren't really risking much more than pawns on this investigation.
