I see that this one has become enjoyed by you fine folks. That makes me glad. And Trest too, I believe. He made sure to remind me to add this one to FF as well. So then, here I give you chapter three!
The white-haired girl kicked back and pushed herself away from the corpse until her back hit the wall. Her stomach churned, but nothing threatened to come out.
"Weiss," Ruby called out in worry as she approached, Crescent Rose on her back again.
"No! Don't!" The heiress shouted. "I… I'm a-"
As Weiss cried and pushed herself further into the corner of the room, Blake frantically reached into her pack and pulled out a small book she had purchased, "Diseases and Treatments". She flipped over to the page on Blood Rot and looked through the symptoms. All of them matched what Weiss had been feeling, but there was something else that she was missing here. She flipped through page after page. Brain Rot, Cannibal's Prion -she winced at that one- Cholera, Consumption, Corprus. She kept flipping through, glancing at the symptoms and trying to figure out what could have done this to her friend. She stopped somewhere in the S's when she saw something that matched her symptoms up until today almost exactly.
'Sanguinare Vampiris'
A vampire disease, most commonly contracted in Skyrim. While rarer than Poryphoric Hemophilia, Sanguinare is noted for being harder to detect due to its similarities to other diseases. It can be transferred via the bite of a vampire, and, should it have three days to incubate, the infected will die and reawaken as a vampire. See Vampirism
Paling, Blake flipped over slowly to the correct page.
'Vampirism'
Those afflicted with vampirism are, essentially, cursed undead. They are harmed by sunlight and are susceptible to fire, in some cases they are repelled by holy elements. There are many strains of vampirism, but all of them are descended from Molag Bal and curse the soul as well as the body. All vampires have an innate thirst for blood that only strengthens as time goes on. Feeding will revitalize them and sate them for a few days, while starving gives them a more monstrous appearance. If there are any reliable cures, then they are not known at this time.
Blake gulped. How was she supposed to explain this to the others?
"Blake?" Yang called as she waved a hand before her partners eyes. Ruby was trying to talk Weiss down, but the heiress was still screaming at them to get away, grasping her hair tightly with at least one hand. Her legs were still kicking, as if trying to push her through the wall.
"I... I think I know what happened to Weiss," she explained quietly. "It's not Blood Rot." She handed over the book to Yang, who quickly scanned through the paragraph, and then looked up with eyes as wide as saucers.
"No..."
"Weiss," Ruby tried again.
"I don't..." she choked out through her tears. "I don't want to hurt you! Please..."
"Weiss, you're not going to hurt us!" Blake yelled, catching her attention. Her screams stopped for a moment and were replacing by frantic breaths. "I just... You have vampirism. It's...hard to explain, but it's another disease. You... You just drank. You aren't going to feel thirsty again for a while."
Her eyes looked over at the book in Yang's hand. Blake saw how they shifted from golden yellow to icy blue for a moment, then back into gold.
"Hand me," she started before clearing her throat. "Hand me the book."
Yang started walking forward, but Weiss flinched, stopping her.
"T- Toss it!"
Yang tossed the tome to her underhanded, and the heiress caught it before rapidly flipping through pages. When she stopped near the end, Blake unconsciously held her breath as her eyes scanned the contents thoroughly. A grimace returned to her face as tears pooled again. "No," she quietly muttered as she dropped the book. "No. No. This can't... This can't be happening." Her legs curled up with her knees pressed into her forehead as she started sobbing quietly. Blake looked on broken-hearted while Yang seemed to lose all luster. Ruby looked back to them and then at her partner. She went down to her knees beside her and put a hand on one of her legs. Weiss looked up at her and sniffed, tears running down her face. As she opened her mouth to say something, she went silent as Ruby threw herself forward and wrapped her into a hug, squeezing her tightly against her.
"It's okay," the younger girl whispered. "It'll be all right."
Weiss just seemed to stare forward for a minute in silence before her own arms rose up and wrapped around Ruby as well. Her eyes closed slowly, and then another pair of arms went around them both. She looked over to see Yang smiling faintly at her before setting her forehead to hers for a moment. Another pair came and they all looked to see Blake
For a while the team sat there, taking comfort in each others' presence. Somehow, despite everything, they felt that it was going to be all right in the end.
Each of them had read over the portion of the book on vampirism at least twice now. Weiss herself was reading it her third time when Ruby spoke up.
"Weiss, are...you alright?"
"No, Ruby. I'm not alright," Weiss answered, taking a break from her reading and noticeably distant from the others. "I just found out that I'm undead, have a constant need to drink people's blood, run the risk of losing control of myself and killing you all, and it turns out that there is no cure for my condition, so I'm stuck like this until I die, which might never happen as apparently vampirism makes you immortal to age, disease, and possibly starvation. So yeah, I'm pretty far from alright."
"Weiss, I..."
"But I'll manage, like I always have," Weiss concluded before she sighed and went back to reading over the symptoms again. Ruby looked at Weiss in concern before her expression hardened into one of pure determination.
"We're going to find the cure."
The heiress was jolted from reading over the symptoms a third time and sighed. "Ruby, it's not that simple."
"Maybe not, but we can definitely do it. Besides, the book says there aren't any reliable cures known. That means someone might know about unreliable cures, or maybe someone found a cure since?"
"This book could be pretty old," Blake pointed out.
Weiss shook her head, tears welling up. "You guys…"
"Hey, uh, heads up about what's up ahead," Yang warned after peering forward. "You guys ever been to a mausoleum?"
"Oh, how terrible can it be?" Weiss asked in irritation before walking forward and then stopping. "What the...?"
The other girls looked into the next room to see what looked like dried corpses sitting in various shelf-like holes in the walls. Some were wrapped in ancient linens while some were left exposed, only clothing and armor on them. A few had weapons resting on their chests, likely indicating that they had been warriors in life.
"They just…left them out," Ruby said as she gazed around. "Are they like mummies?"
"Kinda," Yang guessed uncertainly. "I don't think anyone's used this thing recently. These guys have probably been up here for centuries." She suddenly grasped Weiss's arm as the girl tried to head forward. "Whoa there! Careful." She picked up the lid off an urn and threw it forward. It hit a raised flagstone, and then suddenly a spiked grate swung forward, slamming against a wall before slowly swinging back into place.
"Right. Traps," Weiss hissed. Blake walked up while looking through Arvel's notebook and staring at the palm of the Golden Claw, noting three symbols etched on. She hummed and put the Claw back into her pack.
"So, we've got to watch out for traps? Just be careful from here out." Ruby started looking at one of the battleaxes resting on a mummified warrior. "Wow, this thing barely has any-" A hand shot out and grabbed her leg, and the girl screamed while leaping back and landing against her sister.
"Ruby?!"
"It grabbed me!"
"Don't be silly," her partner admonished with a chuckle. "There's no way-"
A growl came from the mummy as dust launched from its mouth. Its eye sockets began to glow blue as it rose from its place as though simply waking from bed, taking its axe in hands and facing the girls.
"I'm sorry!" Ruby cried out an apology.
"What…is…?" Weiss began.
"Undead," Blake muttered. Her ears twitched and then she looked over to see three others rising up. "They're undead!"
"How?" Yang shouted as she readied Ember Cilica.
"I don't know!"
One of the mummies came forward, lashing out with an ancient sword. Yang deflected the strike and punched the undead, sending it backwards into another. The one nearest them swung its ax, only to be dodged.
"Dir volaan!" it shouted.
"We didn't mean to!" Ruby yelled as she pulled Crescent Rose out.
"Ruby, I don't think you're going to convince them!" her sister shouted as she whacked that one back as well. The four approached as one and the girls readied themselves.
"Okay, there seems to be magic coming from behind the eyes!" Weiss observed.
"Try to remove the heads!" Ruby reasoned as she dodged another axe swing. "Like zombies!" She whipped Crescent Rose forward and pulled it behind a mummy's knees, tripping it onto its back. With a twirl, she stabbed down into its head. The light in its eyes vanished and the corpse stilled. "It works!"
Weiss squared herself with a sword-wielding mummy and parried its swing before jabbing Myrtenaster's end into one socket. The mummy twitched before it fell to the ground with a clack. Blake, meanwhile, dashed forward and swiped the head off of another, while Yang reared back and punched forward, smashing in the face of the last mummy. As it fell, Ruby noticed some kind of slime on the end of her scythe's blade and made a noise of disgust.
"These things are gross," she complained as she took out a cloth and wiped the slime away.
"How are dead things even walking around like this?" Yang asked as she kicked at one of them.
"Magic, I'd assume," Weiss explained. "I went over a lot of magical subjects with Cynrrbert. One that really sounded interesting was the School of Conjuration. Essentially, it allows people to conjure things, normally from something called Oblivion. You can summon weapons, familiar spirits, even beings. But another branch of it is necromancy. He was going to explain some political disputations about it, but decided it wasn't important."
"Let me guess. "Never mind for now"?"
Weiss huffed. "Yes, yes. At least he stops his tangents. Anyways, necromancy is simply putting magic into a dead body and making it…do things. Unskilled mages tend to 'burn out' the body and they end up turning the reanimated corpse into ashes from the inside out. But skilled necromancers can revive a corpse for an unspecified amount of time. I think such a necromancer might have made these mummies into their thralls and then simply set them as a security measure for the barrow."
"Makes sense, I guess." Ruby tentatively picked up the ancient axe and looked it over. "Man, this must have been an amazing blade at the time. It's held an edge for centuries!"
Weiss shook her head and chuckled. "You are something else, I swear. Your partner's cursed, and you say you're going to cure her. We get attacked by reanimated mummies, and you're looking at their weapons."
Ruby smiled and placed the axe down. "Well, being upset's not getting us anywhere. So, what do you guys think? Should we try to find this, uh, Hall of Stories and the treasure, or go back?"
"We came this far," Blake argued in defense of going forward. "And, honestly, the mummies aren't too much of a problem."
"After all of this, we deserve some treasure," Yang complained.
Weiss just nodded when their leader looked at her. Ruby grinned brightly.
"Aaaaaaaallllllll right! Treasure hunters, forward!"
"Ruby! Trap!" Weiss shouted when she stepped on the raised flagstone. Ruby dashed back in a flurry of petals with an 'eep' and into Weiss's arms as the spike gate slammed at her. She laughed nervously and rubbed her neck.
"Forgot about that thing."
Weiss let her go and the younger girl landed on her feet. "What would you do without us?"
The team proceeded to the next room, where more mummies came up only to be soundly defeated in moments. A metallic shifting noise could be heard, and when they looked down a narrow hall, they could see pendulums swiping back and forth every couple seconds.
"Okay, how are we…" Yang paused when she saw Ruby speed through to the other side during a gap in the swings. "Rubes," she admonished.
"It's okay. There's a chain thing here." She reached up and pulled on the chain, and the pendulums stopped. "See?"
"Well, that makes it simpler," Weiss said as she walked through cautiously. They continued through a winding hall with more mummies coming up once in a while. Past that was an underground stream with a waterfall and a bridge across it. A standing coffin popped open and another mummy walked out from it while hefting a sword. Yang sighed as she approached it and knocked its head off.
"These things are getting a little annoying."
"Ooh, treasure chest," Ruby marveled as she opened an old chest on a pedestal. "Ugh, just some cents!" She pulled out the partially corroded coppers and pocketed them. "And a rusty helmet. Hey, did you guys notice that the money is here is almost exactly like the current stuff? Like, the only thing different with this is that instead of a dude's face on it, there's a dragon head."
"It is odd that they haven't changed the currency in what must be at least a thousand years," Weiss agreed before getting back to the matter at hand. "Where do we go from here?"
"Only way is through there," Blake stated as she pulled at another chain that opened a rusty grate. The stream led them all down, though Weiss groaned at having her feet get wet.
"You'd think they'd have a path that didn't lead through a stream," she complained as they turned into a narrow cave that expanded into a wider one.
"It might have come up after they built it," Blake guessed. "See, I doubt they planned for that one either." She pointed over to another stream coming from above and joining the other one into a larger flow of water.
"Hey, that over there looks open to the sky." Ruby rushed over to where some snow had gathered and stuck her head out to look upwards. "Whoa! It's a big hole!"
The others, except for Weiss who stayed out of the sunlight, joined her before they turned and started walking along the path. A mummy was quickly slapped off the natural bridge, and they reentered the cave system.
"You know, it's kinda impressive how far these guys dug," Yang stated. "Couldn't have been done all at once, either."
"Normally how such a crypt would work is that they dig further as time goes on," Weiss explained. "So it's likely the deeper we are the newer the place is."
The cave gave way to temple once again as ancient masonry reasserted itself as the primary feature. A mummy stood guard, but this time Blake was the one to take it down with a quick slice removing its head. A large set of double doors were behind it, which they pushed open and entered. After some more bends and impressive carvings, they heard a familiar noise.
"Another pendulum trap?" Weiss asked as it came into view. "Does anyone else feel like this is a bit much?"
"I honestly don't know what I expected," Blake responded as Ruby dashed through again like last time. As they came through, Ruby pulled out Crescent Rose and sliced through a mummy that had awoken when she got close.
"Sorry," she mumbled to the others, and then ducked as an arrow flew at her head. More mummies had taken to arms at the other side of the complex looking room. Weiss responded by trying to fire lightning at them, but her attempts arced downwards only a dozen feet away from her.
"Guess we're not ready for long distance," Yang quipped before running forward to the archer mummy. Weiss closed in with another and tried her lightning again, and this time filled the undead with electricity. It spasmed in place for a moment and then fell over steaming. Weiss grinned at her accomplishment, but flinched back when a body fell from above next to her.
"My bad," Blake called down.
"Honestly…"
The next room had another set of doors, behind which was a long hallway, on the walls of which were carved murals and inscriptions. The girls looked at them in awe as they continued forward, but then all of their focus went to the intricate carving at the very end.
"The door?" Yang asked.
"The door in the Hall of Stories," Ruby mused as she looked over at the murals. "This must be it. Blake, what do we do?"
Blake took out the Claw and looked at it again. "The notes say that "When you have the golden claw, the solution is in the palm of your hands."" She looked at the door and began pushing the circles on it, moving the animal carvings around until they were ordered from top to bottom with a bear, moth, and owl. She pushed the claw into an indention in the center, fitting its points in and then pushed a little more. The stone in the center suddenly shifted in. She gasped, and tried turning it a little one way, then the other. The whole door began creaking, and Blake backed away with the Claw in hand as the door seemed to sink into the ground.
"Incredible... After all this time it still works..." Weiss gasped in amazement, echoing the rest of her teammates' thoughts.
They walked up the stairs revealed behind the door and looked into a cavern where a large stone platform with stairs leading up to and sitting next to it stood, an iron coffin on one end and a large, curved wall with carvings and inscriptions upon it at the other. Some bats flew out as the approached, frightening them for but a moment before they continued onwards.
"So, does this look valuable to anyone?" Yang asked as she looked around inside of a chest, showing them a few gems.
"Yes, of course!" Weiss responded as she began going through it as well. "This will definitely be worth a small fortune!"
"I see your inner 'Schnee' has emerged..." Blake smirked, only to be ignored by Weiss, who had begun stockpiling all the gems into her bag.
Ruby, however, continued to look around the cavern until she felt a sudden draw pull her towards the curved wall. She could swear she almost heard something as she neared the construct. The words on the wall seemed to glow to her, and she began to mumble.
"Het…nok…faal vahlok…" she muttered.
"Rubes?" Yang asked when she noticed her sister staring at the wall intently. "Ruby? Are you all right?"
"Het nok faal vahlok deinmaar do…"
"What's going on?" Blake wondered.
"Is she reading that? What is-"
The world began to shake as Ruby's voice rose. "HET NOK FaaL VahLok DeiNMaaR DO DOVAahGOLZ ahRK aaN FUS DO UNSLaaD RahGOL ahRK VULOM!" she boomed as misty tendrils reached from the wall and into her. "Here lies the Guardian, Keeper of the Dragonstone, And a Force of unending Rage and Darkness!"
"Ruby?!" Yang shouted, finally pulling her sister's attention away.
"Huh, wha? What's up, Yang?"
Before Yang could ask Ruby the same question, there was a loud bang that came from behind them. The girls turned to see the lid on the iron coffin falling into the stream next to the platform. As they readied themselves for what was about to happen, a mummy rose up, wearing more filled out armor and a horned helm. It looked over to them, and stood straight.
"Getting real tired of these things," the brawler ground out.
"Fus…" the mummy growled, "RO DAH!"
A wave of tangible force came at the girls and hit them. Ruby and Blake were sent backwards, but Yang was able to stand her ground while Weiss held herself steady by stabbing her rapier into the floor. Blake jumped back from the wall, while Ruby stopped herself from hitting it too hard.
"The hell?" Yang cried out as the mummy raised its sword and charged them. She punched at it, only for her blows to get blocked. The mummy slashed and she tried to deflect it, just for her gauntlets to get iced over. "It's got an ice sword!" she warned.
Weiss came in and began slashing and stabbing towards it, but it was able to match her movements as well. It surprised her with a punch that sent her back before trying to stab her, but luckily her Aura took the hit and she was only sent rolling. Blake went for a kick, only for her leg to be caught and then for her to be thrown to the side.
"Guys, hold up!" Ruby called out as she came in, squaring up to the mummy and holding its attention. "This one's tougher than the rest! Weiss, get your lightning ready! Blake, rock clone! Yang, get ready for a fastball!"
"Right!" her sister cheered while punching her fists together, shattering the ice on them.
Blake jumped to the side and swung at the mummy only to be blocked, but when it went for a retaliatory strike, its blade sunk in through her shoulder, only for her body to suddenly turn to stone. The real Blake reappeared and stabbed through both its arms.
"Weiss!" she called out.
The heiress nodded and ran forward as electrical energy built up in her hands. She shouted as she released the lightning at near point blank into the mummy, while at the same time Blake jumped clear. The living corpse spasmed as the magical voltage coursed through it. Meanwhile, Yang had lifted Ruby up by her arm and leg and activated her Semblance, basking the cave in a fiery light.
"Here…goes!" she yelled as she twisted and threw her sister as hard as she could. Weiss ended her spell with a gasp and jumped back out of the way as Ruby sped through, hooking her scythe under the chin of the mummy. She planted her feet firmly upon the ground and pulled as hard as she could, slicing through mummified flesh and brittle bone. The team watched for a moment as the mummy stood still, and then the magical light left its eyes and it fell, its head rolling for a moment before stopping next to its helmet.
Ruby let out a breath she didn't know she was holding and smiled at her team. "That wasn't so bad."
"Compared to the others, though, this one was tough," Yang argued. "Like, on a whole 'nother level."
Seeing how the danger had passed, Blake looked in the coffin it had sprung up from while Ruby started looking over its sword after yanking it loose from its now fully dead hands. "Hey, there's some kind of tablet in here," she told them as she picked up said stone. "Looks like a map." She turned it in her hands and saw the inscriptions on the back side of it. "There's something written on here. Looks like the same script on the wall." She looked over to Ruby, and then at Yang, who glanced over at her sister as well.
"What?" the young leader queried as she took her attention away from the ancient sword.
"Ruby…do you mind taking a look at this?"
"Uh, sure I guess." Ruby took the tablet from Blake and looked it over. She hummed a bit and squinted. "Het nok un…mahlaan drogge…erei suleyk se…Alduin vokrii."
"Okay, in Vytalian?" Yang asked.
"What? I just did." Ruby perked up her eyebrow in confusion. At this, the others glanced at each other before Yang continued.
"I don't know how you're reading that, but when you read the wall, you said it in Vytalian after…whatever that was."
"It was really out there," Weiss added. "Maybe…it's some sort of magic wall that gave you the ability to read their ancient script?"
"If that is the case, then why was only Ruby affected?" Blake pointed out.
"Maybe because she was the closest, I don't know! Do I look like the magic expert here?"
"Compared to us, yes," Yang confirmed, causing Weiss to throw out her arms in exasperation. As she did so, Ruby reread the stone.
"I still don't… No, wait, I can see it now." She squinted again. "I didn't even realize it wasn't… So, what did I say? Uh, just now, I mean."
"Het notch something or other," her sister answered with a wave of her hand. "It all sounded like gibberish to me."
"Het…" Ruby took a moment to mull it over in her mind. "'Here lies…our fallen lords until…the power of Alduin…revives."
The team looked over at the tablet again as they thought about the translation. "So…it's a map to burial sites?" Yang thought aloud.
"Possibly other barrows like this one," Weiss guessed as she began to pace. "Assuming the others on the map are similar to this one, each would have a sort of key, leading to an inner chamber like this, with more clues to finding…something. I wouldn't be surprised if this stone was a part of a puzzle that led to something…big."
"Sounds like video game logic," Blake countered.
"No, it's fantasy logic. Which, given everything else around here, makes perfect sense in this situation. The mummies, the traps, the magical reading enchantment that's now made Ruby the key to finding the rest of these things…"
"Oh boy! I read one thing and…" Ruby muttered.
"…It's all part of some ancient culture's scheming test to make sure whatever being finds their lost artifact, treasure, or what have you is worthy of holding it," Weiss started to crescendo at this point, while her team stared at her with blank looks. "We have displayed cunning and strength to get this far, and the others may hold more tests yet for us as we-"
"Or we could put it in a museum," Yang pointed out. "We don't have to go on a big treasure hunting quest."
"Besides, you could be totally wrong and it just leads to some normal graves," Ruby tacked on.
"Not to mention one or more of them could have collapsed," Blake bet. "We saw a few hallways that were inaccessible on the way here. It's likely at least one of them totally caved in."
Weiss groaned in disappointment.
"Don't worry Weiss," Ruby bubbled as she went over and patted her shoulder. "We can still find someone who knows about this stuff and they might tell us more. And I promise we'll look at one of them, at least."
"I still think I'm right," she objected. At this, Ruby smiled.
"Now, let's check out the next room!"
"Maybe we should go back," Blake retorted.
"But this might be where ALL of the treasure is at," Ruby called as she hopped up the steps and into the cave tunnel. The others followed her in and looked to see her opening a hidden door after pulling on some handle.
"Oh, so there was a back way."
"A secret back way," Ruby whispered while ducking and moving her hands out. Yang felt a little regret taking her to see that cheesy spy movie as her sister sped forward ahead of them, stopping at a chest next to a shrine set in a recess and opening it. "Yep, more jewels! And a gauntlet!" She pulled out the piece of armor and checked inside of it before putting it on her right hand. "Neat! I wonder what kind of metal this is. It looks like bronze, but it isn't corroded at all. Geez, how did these guys make this stuff last this long?"
"Huh, that is pretty cool," Yang agreed before looking forward. "And it looks like we found our way out."
After bagging all of the gems, the girls walked back outside to find themselves on a high rise at the side of the mountain. Weiss, with a wince, threw her cloak over her head as the sun hit her.
"Feeling okay?" Blake asked her.
"Better. Sunlight still bothers me, but… I don't feel as bad." She grimaced and shook a little.
Blake dropped the subject there and looked across the distance. There was a lake nearby, fed by the river, and across it was a green, piney forest.
"It looks beautiful, doesn't it?"
"…Yes, it does."
"Hey, look, a mammoth skeleton," Ruby pointed out to the side of them. The young girl hopped down and went over to take a closer look at it. "I wonder if we'll see a live one."
"We could…sell the tusks," Weiss explained as she followed along. "Ivory should be fairly valuable. And it makes for beautiful carvings."
"Huh, yeah. It'd make a good hilt." Ruby yanked a tusk loose and yelped as she fell back. "I'm okay. I'm okay."
"Riverwood would be up the river from here, right?" Blake asked. "You think they have a boat or something we could use at that dock over there? I just…do not feel like walking all the way back."
"We could ask, I suppose," Ruby answered as she got back to her feet. "Might be quicker too. It looks… I don't know. But it's past noon. We should get back before nightfall to be safe. Oh! We've got to get all those bandits we caught!"
"Don't worry Rubes. They'll be fine," her sister reckoned.
"Thanks for the lift!" Ruby cheerfully told the boatman. Weiss handed him two septims and he nodded to them.
"Aye, no worries, lasses," he said while tying his boat to the dock. He'd be leaving in the morning with some wood for his fence he was building, as he told them, and staying at the inn overnight.
"Well, glad to see you all back," Cynrrbert greeted as they came into town. "A totally different direction than the one you went in though. I guess it was quite the adventure."
"Well, we took down the bandits," Weiss answered proudly. "Several of them are tied up at the barrow's entrance. And I finally got the basics of lightning magic down!" She held out a hand and several sparks flew from her fingers, singeing some grass.
"Whoa! Careful with the magic!" a passing man said. "Don't want you burning any houses down!"
"S-sorry!"
"Ah, well done. Told you it was easy, didn't I?"
"It certainly came in handy. By the way, do you know what causes those mummies we faced in the barrow?"
"Mummies?" A confused look crossed the mage's face before his eyes widened in realization. "Ah, you must mean the draugr. Same thing I suppose, but most Nords are going to call them that. Hm, can't say I know what exactly causes them, but there are all sorts of examples of undead just happening for seemingly no reason. There's an old legend that says draugrs are the people who worshipped the dragons back when they ruled Skyrim, cursed to never find rest, but it sounds like hogwash to me. More likely a security measure installed by necromancers back in the day."
"Yes, that's what I thought too. Oh, we also found something in there. Ruby, do you have that stone?"
Ruby looked from where Yang and Gerdur were talking about the bandits and started going through her satchel. "Uh, sure, yeah. Here you go." She handed it over to Weiss, who showed it to the mage.
"Do you have any idea what this could be?"
"Hm, can't rightly say. I think that's Dragon script, though."
"Dragon script?" Weiss questioned with a raised eyebrow.
"I can't tell you too much. Dragons were never too interesting to me. Well, not since I was a boy anyways. What little lad doesn't dream of slaying a dragon in his youth? However, there is a man rather experienced with dragon apocrypha. Farengar, the Court Wizard of Whiterun. You're headed that way anyways, right?"
"That…is incredibly coincidental." She looked back at the tablet and hummed in thought. "Say, do you know if there's any sort of enchantment that could make it to where someone could read this?"
"I'm guessing you ran into such a thing."
"Ruby did. Suddenly she was able to read this same sort of script on a wall, but didn't even notice when she did. Then she could read this tablet. She said it was something like 'here lie our fallen lords, until…something revives them'."
"Well, it's not outside the realm of possibilities that something could've given her the ability to read it. I've heard of stranger things happening in the Ayleid and Dwemer ruins. Heh, Farengar might want to take her on as an assistant if the ability turns out to be long-lasting or permanent. Maybe even those monks on… Never mind that. Well, I suppose I'll be taking off as well, soon. Headed south to Cyrodiil. Want any more pointers before we part ways?"
"Yes, that would be excellent."
"All right. We'll send Faendal, Hod, and Sven to watch them overnight, and then bring up a wagon to cart them all back to the prison in the morning," Gerdur agreed. "You've got some chains lying around, Alvor?"
"A few. Making a few more before supper won't be any trouble. I'll add them to your tab then."
"All right. Then that's taken care of," Ruby sighed. "Blake got Lucan his Claw back, and we'll be heading to Whiterun tomorrow. I can't thank you guys enough for helping us out while we're here."
"You kidding?" Gerdur started. "You cleared two of the biggest threats to our village for miles, and you're going out of your way to get us help from the Jarl. If anything, we owe you much more."
"Aw, shucks, we're just doing the right thing." Ruby twisted her toes in the dirt while blushing a little.
"Heh," Alvor laughed. "If a few more people did the right thing like this more often, we wouldn't have any worries at all."
"Take it from us, girl. You've done Riverwood a huge favor, and you've promised to do even more. You'll always have a spot at our village, even if I have to toss out some people from the inn. Speaking of which, I think there are some people waiting to celebrate. Your sister already went there."
Yang gulped down the honey-made beverage and then slammed the mug down. The people around her cheered and then her opponent downed his own mug, though noticeably slower. He slammed it down and the crowd cheered again, though a few went quiet when he lurched a bit, but swallowed back.
"I! Know when I'm! Beaten!" he shouted while throwing a sack of coins on the table. The crowd whooped and hollered and Yang celebrated by down a final victory mug.
"Hey, Delphy!" she called across the inn. "Put some on me!" And she tossed the innkeeper her newly earned coins.
"As long as it's paid for," she said while catching it. "All right, first come, first served!"
The group went over for their free drinks and Yang laughed at the tingly feeling going through her.
"Yang!" her little sister balked when she saw her. "It's only been an hour!"
"Aw, I just had to celebrate with these guys though! Besides, I got offered a bunch of free drinks. It'd be rude to say no."
"Did it have to be alcohol?" she groaned with puffed out cheeks. Yang just laughed uproariously and brought her sister in for a hug.
"Oh, dou're adorable, sis," Yang slurred, the alcohol finally getting to her. "Lesh go get Weissy and Blakey. Blake's 'upposed to get the gems sold to the carrot van and Weiss is magicking stuff."
"Yang, you're drunk."
"Wah? Really?"
"Well, today's been…" Weiss searched for the right word, but could only find one. "Eventful."
"At least things should calm down tomorrow," Ruby said. "We'll just be taking a trip with the Khajiits to Whiterun."
"Hey, hey Blake," their drunk teammate called out. "You should…let you ears out! Heh? Heh? They won't mind. They might even…like, I dunno, like you more er somethin'?"
"I know they won't mind, but…" Blake honestly couldn't think of a reason to not let the Khajiit know, but she wasn't as sure about the other peoples. "After we leave. And I'm keeping a hat around in case we come across humans."
"You realize you don't need to make promises to someone while they're drunk, right?" Weiss asked.
"Yang's memory is actually pretty good when she drinks," Ruby explained. "I think she gets it from our uncle's side. He's like that too." At the mention of her uncle, a forlorn expression flashed across Ruby's face before quickly going back to normal.
"As long as she doesn't do this too often." Weiss stretched out her arms and went over to the bed she'd be using. "If that's everything though, maybe we should start turning in. We've got an early start tomorrow." She pulled out a vial and uncorked it before downing the contents.
"Weiss! You don't need that!"
"We need to keep up appearances," the heiress explained as she recorked it and set it aside. "Besides, it'll help me sleep." She dug herself up under the blanket and sighed. Following her lead, Ruby helped a giggling, drunk Yang to her bed before moving into hers, with Blake doing the same. After a few moments of silence, a small voice sounded off.
"Hey, Weiss..."
"Yes, Ruby..." the heiress groggily responded.
"On the stone...it said something about an 'Alduin'. Do you know anything about that?"
"No, Ruby... Probably just some ancient necromancer..." With that, Weiss turned back to go to sleep.
"…What do you think is going on back home? In Vale? Beacon?"
"I… I don't know. The Vytal Tournament was about to start, so…competing in that is probably outside the realm of possibility..."
"Yeah…Pyrrha was probably going to win that, anyway."
"Sez you!" Yang interjected, still following along despite her drunken condition. "I cud take 'er!"
"Heh, not like that you can't. Jaune might be able to beat you in that state," Blake cracked, with giggles responding as Yang performed an obscene gesture with an outstretched finger while smirking. After a short round of giggles, a silence descended once again.
"I imagine that people are probably wondering where we are," Weiss stated. "Ozpin, Ironwood, my father…"
"Knowing Jaune and Sun, you can count JNPR and SSSN in that list as well," Ruby added before going silent. "Do you-"
"Yes, we will," Weiss answered the incoming question, resolute. "I promise you that we will get back home. It may not be today, it may not be tomorrow, it may not even be in a year, but we will go home."
"Just like we'll find you a cure," Ruby smiled. "Thank you, Weiss."
"No problem, Ruby," With that, a silence descended upon the team, only to be broken by a loud snore from a passed out Yang. Another round of giggles sounded off.
"Well, with that wondrous addition by Yang, good night guys," the leader said to her team, blowing out her candle.
"Good night," they all told one another.