Alright, exams are officially done! Hopefully this means the chapters will be back up to normal length from here on out (at least until August, assuming this story runs that long).

Minerva

Minerva hadn't expected to find herself back in Riverwood any time in the near future. Yet here she was, standing in front of the Sleeping Giant Inn. She'd gone all the way though that dungeon, passing through the Whirlwind Sprint test, fighting those Draugr...for a note?

Whoever this so-called friend was, they were going to be lucky if Minerva didn't strangle them for this. Minerva took a deep breath and held it as she walked in. Breathe...and focus. Breathe...and focus. Questions first, strangling later.

Minerva let out the breath as she walked up to the counter. Behind the counter was a sullen-looking Nord in a plain tunic. "I need...er...I'd like to rent a room."

The Nord didn't even look up, simply nodding towards a blonde Breton sweeping the corner. "Talk to Delphine. She runs this place."

Rude. But okay. Minerva bit her tongue in annoyance as she walked over to Delphine. "Hey, your friend over there said I needed to talk to you to rent a room? The attic one. Please."

Delphine stopped sweeping and looked at Minerva with a tired expression. "We don't have an attic room. You can have the one on the right, though."

She nodded towards a room near the end of the building. It seemed unoccupied. "Um, okay. Thanks."

It was only after entering the room and closing the door that it occurred to Minerva that she hadn't paid. She doubted this "friend" had paid in advance, considering their rudeness, so that wouldn't do. But as Minerva started to turn around to head back out, the door opened again.

It was Delphine. She spared a single glance at Minerva before turning around and securing the deadbolt on the door.

Wait. Minerva hadn't seen a lock like that on an inn door before. Was this a trap? Minerva really should have considered that before coming here. Slowly, she reached for her axe, but Delphine turned around and crossed her arms. "There's no need for that. I'm not your enemy."

Her voice was sharp and clear, and she seemed much less tired then before. Sure, the bags under her eyes were still there, but she was standing up straight, and her gaze was sharp as she looked Minerva up and down. "What's going on?" snapped Minerva. "Why did you bring me he-"

Delphine put her hand over Minerva's mouth and shushed her. "Not here!" she hissed. Minerva glared at Delphine, fighting the urge to bite the woman's hand. Who was this woman? Why was she being so secretive and deceitful?

Slowly, Delphine brought her hand away from Minerva's mouth. Keeping her gaze on Minerva all the while, she backed herself up to the wardrobe in the corner. Opening it, Minerva saw her move the clothes to the side and shift the back slightly, revealing a tunnel sloping down. Minerva stifled a gasp.

Delphine crossed her arms. "We need to talk. Privately."

She gestured for Minerva to follow her down the tunnel. Minerva shook her head and unhooked her axe from her belt. "Uh-uh! No way in Oblivion am I following you! Why shouldn't I think you're just gonna try to shank me and hide the body?"

Delphine's eyes narrowed, then she sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Well, I guess I should admire your caution." She reached into the wardrobe again, this time into the pockets of one of the dresses hanging there. Delphine pulled out a shiny metal object, and Minerva raised her axe, expecting a dagger, or even a sword.

But it wasn't a weapon. As Delphine held out the object, Minerva could see that it was shaped like a hunting horn. "So, you were the one who left the note," whispered Minerva, lowering her axe slightly.

Delphine motioned for Minerva to take the horn. Minerva slowly reached out, then snatched the horn away and put it in her bag. "There. Are we good now?" Delphine asked.

Not really, but Minerva wanted to know what was going on. Why the secrecy? Why had Delphine of all people taken the horn?

And if this was a trap...well, avoiding getting shank-murdered seemed like a "true need" to Minerva. She could use her Shouts if she needed to.

So, against all common sense, Minerva followed Delphine down the tunnel.

Brelyna

"Of course this was a bad idea, why wouldn't it be a bad idea! But noooo! 'Go help them,' you said 'they need you', you said!"

The Imperial priest, Florentius, yammered on as Brelyna shook her head. This would be the last time she'd be doing a favor for Urag. It was supposed to be simple: In exchange for his help on brainstorming her thesis, she would accompany him to recover some rare books from near Dawnstar. Supposedly, the Skyrim Thieves' Guild had gotten a run of bad luck and had needed to hide the rare books somewhere before they were caught. So said the rumors.

They hadn't found any books so far, but they had run into Durak, the Orc from Morthal. He was accompanied by a priest who kept rambling to himself. "Don't mind him," Durak had said. "He's harmless. Annoying, but harmless."

He'd explained why they were there: apparently groups of vampires had been swarming the area for some unexplained reason. "Isran thinks they're looking for something, and I agree," he'd said. Apparently, Isran was the leader of the Dawnguard group they were part of.

"Aren't the Vigilants of Stendarr supposed to handle stuff like this?" questioned Brelyna. She didn't like them at all, what with her focus in Conjuration, but she'd never heard of them skimping on duties like this.

Durak and Florentius' faces had darkened at Brelyna's question. "You haven't heard?"

Brelyna shook her head. "News travels slowly to Winterhold."

"The Hall of the Vigilant was attacked. By vampires," Florentius explained. All the members are either dead or scattered now." He put his head down. "Arkay says most of their souls are uncorrupted though, so that's a bit of comfort. Vampires can be nasty necromancers."

Brelyna stared at Durak, who just shook his head with a "just go with it" expression. "Anyways," Durak sighed. "That's why we need to find out what they're looking for. There hasn't been a huge attack like that since...well...I can't even remember. They're planning something, that much is obvious."

Urag crossed his arms. "Well they'd better not be after my books!"

So they decided to travel to Dimhollow Crypt together to see what they could find. Which led to now. Fighting vampires. Lots of vampires.

At least these ones didn't seem interested in biting her, Brelyna noted. She shivered and rubbed her neck as she recalled the incident in Morthal. She wasn't going through that again. Not if she could help it.

Luckily, she and Durak had more experienced help this time around. Between Brelyna and Urag's summons, Durak's weapons (which he said was called a crossbow), and Floentius' vampire-burning Restoration magic (Colette would be proud), none of the vampires could even get close to the group.

The vampires were accompanied by monstrous, animalistic beings. "Death hounds" Durak had called them, but they didn't look like any hounds Brelyna had ever seen. Their colors reminded her of the dragon at Helgen, with black skin, red eyes, and long, knife-like teeth that extended over their lips.

The group finally reached what appeared to be the main room. There was a large pool of water with an island-pedestal in the middle, connected by a bridge to the floor the group was standing on.

Waiting on the island were three figures. One figure was holding another up by the neck while a third stood by. "I will ask you again," came an even voice. "Where. Are. The others."

The figure being held up struggled a bit. "I...I won't! My oath to Stendarr is greater than any power you could wield, vampire!"

"So be it." There was a crunching sound and the figure being held up went limp. Brelyna gasped.

The two other figures turned towards the group, but both were immediately shot with Durak's crossbow and fire from Brelyna's staff. Once both of them had fallen, the group crossed the bridge.

Durak let out a low whistle as everyone looked around. The island was surrounded by rings of stone arches, dark like obsidian. In the middle stood a pillar as large as a person, with a smaller pillar in front of it. As she got closer, Brelyna could see a button on the top of the smaller pillar.

"Ah ha!" Brelyna jumped and spun around to see Urag standing over the two dead vampires. In each hand he held a book, one black and one blue. "I knew they would have them!"

Brelyna sighed as her heart rate slowed back down. "So, what now?" she questioned.

Durak looked around. "Whatever those vampires wanted, it probably has something to do with these rocks." He looked at the others. "Any ideas?"

Brelyna looked back at the button. As she did, she heard the priest mumbling behind her. "What do you mean 'push the button'? Why would we push a random button? Who knows what it does, come on..."

Brelyna sighed and looked to Florentius. "No, I think I agree with the other guy. We might as well see what it does, since we came all this way."

Florentius crossed his arms as Brelyna put her hand on the button. "You don't have to be so smug about it!" Brelyna wasn't sure whether he was talking to her, so she just decided to ignore it and pushed down.

Brelyna yelped and stumbled back as a needle shot out of the button and pierced her palm. "What in Oblivion?"

Then the ground around them started to shake. Durak pulled out his crossbow, and Florentius summoned a light spell. "Be on your guard!" Durak yelled. The shaking continued. Brelyna readied a summon, as did Urag.

Then the rumbling stopped. And the front of the pillar before the group receded into the ground.

Brelyna was expecting a Draugr, but...it was a woman. A Nord, it seemed. Brelyna didn't get to see much else before the woman groaned and stumbled forward. Almost on instinct, Brelyna stepped forward and gently gripped the woman's shoulders, helping her get steady.

"What are you doing?" yelped Durak. Brelyna saw the marking on the woman's lips and cursed her proper upbringing. Of course. Of course a person sleeping in a coffin would be a vampire.

But the woman vampire didn't move to bite Brelyna. She seemed very disoriented, blinking rapidly and looking around slowly. "...huh?" She looked up at Brelyna, her eyes just a bit too reflective and shiny to be mortal. "Oh...hello there."

Brelyna swallowed nervously. "Um...hi." After making sure the woman was steady, Brelyna released her hands and backed up a bit.

Durak lowered his crossbow a bit, a confused expression on his face. "...who are you? What were you doing in there?" Durak, and everyone else, had been expecting a fight. Not...whatever was going on here.

The woman looked around at the group, still rubbing her eyes. She was dressed in armor similar to what some of the other vampires had been wearing, but much fancier. Her hair was raven-colored, and was down except for two bits in the front that had been braided and pinned up. "...Did my father send you?"

Uh oh. "Your father?" questioned Durak.

"We heard about some disturbances and some possibly valuable tomes that were down here," Urag explained. "We didn't expect to find anyone...friendly." The "friendly" descriptor was obviously reluctant, but the woman hadn't tried to kill any of them yet, so she was already nicer then the other vampires they'd met. "What were you doing in there anyways?"

The woman looked down. "Um...that's a bit complicated. I'm not really sure where to begin." She looked back up at the group. "I can tell you more if you help me get back home. It's nothing personal, I just don't know any of you."

Durak looked at the woman, then at the group. He gestured for the others to follow him a little ways away, where they huddled together. "I don't like this," grunted Durak. "It smells like a trap."

"I'm inclined to agree," noted Urag, "but what else can we do?"

"Kill her," grunted Durak.

"What?" yelped Brelyna. "But she hasn't done anything to us!"

"Not yet," pointed out Durak.

"Arkay says we can trust her. That she doesn't want to hurt us yet," Florentius put in "I'm not so sure, but he usually has a good sense for these things..." The others ignored him.

"We should take her back to Fort Dawnguard. See what Isran thinks."

Florentius glared at the Orc. "So he can put a crossbow bolt in her chest, you mean! you and I both know Isran shoots first, asks questions never!"

"Maybe we should just go along with this," noted Urag. "We could get more information that way."

"You know I can hear you, right?" the woman called from across the room. Right. Vampire.

Durak rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Okay, I'll head back to Fort Dawnguard and talk to Isran. You can escort her...wherever her home is. On your heads be it."

Minerva

"So, you're the Dragonborn I've been hearing so much about."

At the end of the tunnel was not a shank-murder closet as Minerva has expected, but instead what looked like some kind of miniature war-room, with supplies and maps on tables everywhere. Delphine stood behind the largest table, staring at Minerva intently.

Minerva, feeling very uncomfortable with this scrutiny, crossed her arms. "That's what I've been told," she said. An evasive answer, but this woman hadn't given Minerva much reason to trust her yet. So evasive she would be.

The woman snorted. "You don't trust me, do you? I already gave you the horn. What more do you want?"

Minerva crossed her arms. "I want to know how you knew I was going after the horn. And I want to know what you want with me."

Delphine sighed. "Alright. That's fair. I knew you were going after the horn as soon as the Greybeards called for you." She shook her head. "It's their usual test. They're nothing if not predictable."

Minerva frowned, feeling a bit offended on behalf of the Greybeards, but let Delphine continue. "As for what I want...I want to know if they're right. If you really are Dragonborn."

"So go up and ask them. Is their word not good enough for you?"

Delphine gave a short, biting laugh. "Ha! No, not really." She gave Minerva a hard look. "I want to see proof with my own eyes. See you absorb a dragon's soul and prevent it from coming back to life."

Back to life? "They can do that?"

Delphine rolled her eyes. "I see the Greybeards didn't tell you anything. As usual."

Minerva frowned. "They told me lots of stuff! Most of it was just about other Dragonborn, not dragons in general."

Delphine shrugged. "Well, that's why a Dragonborn is so important. They're the ultimate dragonslayer. With its soul intact, a dragon can be brought back to life."

Saying this, Delphine pulled out a sheet of parchment with a charcoal rubbing on it. It looked incredibly familiar. "That's what's happening right now. Someone, or something, is going around dragon burial mounds and resurrecting the dragons. If the pattern I've deduced is correct, the next incident should be in Eastmarch, in a town called Kynesgrove." Delphine looked Minerva in the eyes. "So here's what's going to happen. We're going to Kynesgrove to see what's going on. Then you're going to kill the dragon and prove you're Dragonborn in the process. Alright?"

Minerva ground her teeth. She shouldn't go along with this. She had the horn. She could go back to the Greybeards and tell them everything. See what they had to say.

And yet...she wanted to know if Delphine was right. And she wanted Delphine to stop being so damn condescending. Prove yourself, a large part of her said. Prove this ignorant, condescending bitch wrong. The look on her face will be priceless! "Alright. Fine."

I know that you don't technically recruit Florentius until after you find Serena, but I like his character so I took a bit of creative license here.

I've seen such a wide variety of Delphine representation in stories, from the reasonable and willing to compromise to the outright villainous. This story will probably end up somewhere in between.

Also, the two books Urag was looking for were "On the Great Collapse" and "Spirit of the Daedra" if you were wondering.

Next chapter: Delphine and Minerva head to Kynesgrove and meet up with some familiar faces.