Sorry this took a while. Holidays, a second job, and other stuff I won't get into in an author's note have all caused a bit of a stall. Bunch of thanks to xTRESTWHOx and NaanContributor
Chapter 65: Bridges Left Unburned
16th of Evening Star
Blake slowly opened her eyes as she woke up to see a head of blonde hair and wolf ears hanging over her. She nearly ignored the presence to close her eyes again, but shot them back open and looked past Yang's wolfish (not literally, thank the gods) grin to the ears on her head.
"…how?" Blake quietly asked, stupefied beyond all belief. When the two of them fell asleep, Yang certainly did not have a pair of wolf ears replacing her human pair.
"Morning, sleepyhead," Yang greeted her before leaning down and nuzzling against the Faunus. Blake tried to push her off and groaned as she knocked the giggling Yang to the side. The werewolf immediately slung her arm around Blake and pulled her close.
"Yang!" Blake protested, trying to push the blonde off, but Yang cheekily pulled her closer.
"What? I'm just making sure you're awake."
"In the most annoying way," Blake complained.
"That's just part of the process," Yang countered with a smile. Blake gave her a lidded stare then looked back at her head to confirm the presence of canine ears.
"How?" she repeated, more clearly this time.
"Oh, you mean my ears?" Yang flicked them a bit while giving the Faunus a grin. "I've got basically perfect control over my transformations, so I can do things like change just one body part."
"And you decided to change just your ears?" Her curiosity getting the better of her, Blake brought her hand up to the side of Yang's head. Sure enough, unlike her own set, Yang's human ears were now missing, the Faunus' fingers passing through golden locks uninterrupted. Growing more and more resigned by the second, Blake raised an eyebrow, and Yang mirthfully wiggled her own in turn.
"Thought you might find it neat."
"Well, it certainly isn't not neat," Blake admitted. "But it's too early for me to focus on stuff like that. So please, get off." As she tried to relax, Yang brought her face over and nipped down on one of her cat ears. "AH! No!"
Blake tried to pull herself free, but they rolled in such a way that Yang was on top of her, then she felt fingers digging at her ribs.
"No! No! Ahahahahaha!" she cried out as Yang began to mercilessly tickle her, forcing the laughter right out of her. "I- Hahahaha! Can't- Hehehahahaheha!"
Serana glared at the tent in annoyance as Rumarin readied their breakfast.
"Noisy," she complained, trying to block out the sounds as she packed her tent away.
"Well, turned out we didn't have to do anything," he told her.
"That's not what's going on right now," she insisted, but Rumarin shook his head and threw his arm behind his back towards the tent in question.
"Disbelieve if you want. I'm not sure how to convince you of what's happening right before your eyes."
"There's nothing to-" Serana began to protest, but Blake suddenly popped out of the tent while straightening out her clothes. Yang closely followed, a huge grin on her face, and the elf gestured to her with a 'told you so' expression pointed toward the vampire.
"So, what ya cookin', Roomie?" Yang asked as she sat down with them. Serana, meanwhile, sighed and pinched her brow.
The trail led them past Shor's Stone and into the forest west of the village, Yang leading them almost solely by her nose, though there were other signs that even the other three could pick up on, such as footprints and broken underbrush. It led them up the foot of a mountain, and soon the trail was pretty much closed.
"All right, I see it," Yang warned the group as a cave with a wooden door set into it came in sight. The smell of corpses was in the air, which she followed to find a sort of pit nearby. Old and fresher bodies had been dropped into it, but all were recently placed. Going by the robes, the fresher corpses had been mages of some kind. The skull painted on one of them screamed necromancy.
"Must have taken over," Serana figured. "Doesn't look like they got along well."
"Nope," Yang agreed. "All right, let's check around. Serana, Roomie, you guys keep watch outside and look around the nooks and crannies. Blake and I will head inside and see if anyone's home. If we run into anybody, you'll probably hear it."
"Right," Rumarin responded. "We'll stay out of the possible vampire-necromancer cave and make sure no one gets too close."
The two Huntresses then headed up and into the cave. As they went, a voice could be heard up ahead. Blake could make it out perfectly fine, but Yang had to morph her ears to pick it up better.
"What is the meaning of war?" the voice seemed to ask no one in particular. "Is it an opportunity for triumph, or evidence of our greatest failure?" They came up into a chamber and saw an Argonian standing near a corner among what seemed to be a livable setup, facing the cavern walls. "Ours is to vanquish the unliving, but is that the true path? Is our way, our world, something worth saving? Answer my query, strangers, and I will know the difference between triumph and failure."
Yang and Blake cautiously approached the being, the former turning her ears back to normal as they did. He turned to them, and the two paused as his eyes focused in on them, though both saw the small body lying near his feet.
"Answer my query," he continued, "and I will tell you if wars have any meaning."
Blake seemed caught on the question. She wasn't sure herself, but the bodies around them were distracting her. She looked over at the man in a chair, who looked dried up and had a small bitemark on his neck, and then the child next to the Argonian's feet. Blake's body tensed and she reflexively reached for Gambol Shroud, but before she could, she noticed the fangs in the child's mouth and blinked when she realized that the girl was a vampire. She gulped, but Yang was the one to step forward.
"I don't know much about wars," the blonde admitted, "but I know that sometimes, you've gotta fight for what's right. And this world, it's worth saving."
"Then perhaps all is not lost, and our path is still true, if people hold on to hope," he concluded, his eyes blinking sideways before his brows bent in what Blake recognized as an Argonian smile. "Divines forgive me for my doubt. In the world's darkest hour and mine, I did not expect to find a friend."
"Well, it's good to meet you too, then," she greeted him. "I'm Yang."
"Blake," the Faunus introduced herself as Yang went over and checked out the child vampire's corpse. It seemed she had figured it out before Blake did, as she was sure the blonde would have exploded with anger if she thought for even a moment that they had caught a child murderer. Much like all of them did the first time they encountered a hagraven nest. While she had mixed feelings, Blake knew from experience that vampires could appear childlike while technically being centuries old.
"And I am Among-the-Hist," he told them, closing a hand over his chest and nodding his head in some unfamiliar gesture.
"If you don't mind me asking," Blake spoke up, catching the Argonian's blank-eyed attention, "what war are you referring to?"
"For the past two years, I have embarked on a single road. Ours was to walk its twists and turns… overcome its many obstacles. All the while believing that if I followed to the end, I would find redemption," he explained before releasing a small hiss that was like a sigh. "Only it appears the road ends here. In this hollow cave with the corpse of the child I was asked to save." He looked down at said corpse. "It was rumored that the child left for Eastmarch to join the Stormcloaks, in defiance of the father's alignment with the Empire." He turned and bent down next to Yang, who had stopped her observations, having found the cause of final death to be a single stab wound to the heart. "For a lord's house, the truth was far more incriminating, and for a loving father, one far more heartbreaking." He stood back up with Yang and looked at them both. "Thus the lord could not trust anyone save an Argonian prisoner. One guilty of the child's same crime. Vampirism."
"Wait, vampirism?" Yang resisted the urge to sniff, and so breathed in normally, but could only pick up regular Argonian scents. "You don't look like a vampire."
"Yes, the skin, eyes, and fangs are telltale signs, but some men can't be sure the same is true for other races." He closed his eyes and crossed his arms before recounting his tale about how a Nord accused him of being a vampire when he refused to accept his challenge to a brawl. While it unnerved people, it seemed to be forgotten with the night. Then two bodies showed up the next morning, and he was used as an easy scapegoat and arrested to calm the populace. The guards then proceeded to starve him, offering him food in exchange for a false confession.
"It was better to die by the axe than starvation, but few can stomach either," he went on. "So I did what all mortals do when there is no logical escape: I prayed. To Julianos for temperance. To Stendarr for mercy. To Mara for love. And when I awoke the next morning, my cage was gone, as was my hunger."
Blake felt the anger that built up from the story of false accusation and arrest cool off while Yang tilted her head and cupped her chin.
"Wait, you said you were looking for redemption," Yang pointed out. "But you didn't do anything."
"Not according to the laws of mortals," he confessed, "but the Gods hold us to a different standard."
"Uh huh. And how were you freed?" Yang asked, tilting her head. By now, all of Team RWBY had encountered indisputable proof of the Tamrielic gods, but she also knew that unless one was a Daedra or the situation was dire enough, the Aedra didn't tend to directly interact with the world.
"The night before, I was paid a visit by a man, his face shrouded by the hood of his robe. In his arms he cradled an urn, filled with the dust of a vampire. The dust was to be scattered around my cell, as proof of my demise. I knew not how much coin he had passed to my jailors, but it was enough to carry on with the ruse. Outside the barracks, a carriage awaited us both. It took us to a nearby chateau, where I would meet my true employer."
"The lord guy," Yang guessed. "So, he thought you were a vampire and that you could help find his daughter."
"In essence," Among-The-Hist admitted. "He asked me several things about vampires to confirm if they were true, but also if I knew where his daughter was. I told him 'No,' but I could find her. After all, I was a hunter, a member of the Order of Virtuous Blood." The organization name sparked a little interest in both women, but the Argonian continued. "So I told him why I came to Skyrim and my desire for penance. Then he made an offer. A second chance for him, his daughter, and for me."
"Wait, I'm still lost. You keep mentioning that this was supposed to be your way of finding redemption," Blake pointed out to him. "What…did you do?"
He hummed to himself and scratched at his chin before closing his eyes for a moment. "Before coming to Skyrim, I had spent my life hunting vampires for The Order. Much like the Vigilants, we often hunted in pairs. My partner was a nightblade named Arlas. He used stealth and shadow to eliminate our targets while I covered him from a distance." He laughed a bit at the memory. "His was a remarkable courage. Many in The Order prefer long-range attacks, to avoid the chance of infection. Arlas never deterred from his methods." His smile then disappeared, replaced by a tilt of sadness in his eyes. "Courage alone, however, was not enough to prepare us for what lay in that den, nearly four winters ago.
"I watched Arlas scout ahead from afar, melding to the shadows in search of the enemy. The den was for all intents and purposes empty, yet the center table showed not a fleck of dust, and the torches on the wall were recently lit. A shiver swam up my tail like a cold fish, but I knew Arlas was safe so long as he stuck to the shadows. Until I saw the shadows themselves move." Blake felt a small shiver run through her, and the Argonian seemed to wince at the memory. "The shadow spread its wings, as did the others, cloaking the room in darkness. They came from above. Like bats, descending on their prey. Ours was to call for my friend and reach for my staff, trying to shield his escape with fire. We barely made it out alive, but not unscathed."
"He got hurt," Yang deduced.
He nodded. "One of those foul demons had raked its talons across Arlas' back." His expression went downcast again. "All I had to do was look into his narrowing pupils to see the infection had taken root."
"He was turning?" the blonde asked, thinking back to when Weiss was infected. They hadn't known what was going on at the time, believing it to be a normal disease that they tried to find treatment for. Later reading let them know that they had been too late either way. Weiss had turned into a vampire right under their noses without one of them even noticing. "You couldn't get him a potion?"
"It was progressing faster than any case of vampiris I had ever witnessed. Potions had no effect. There was no time to take him to a healer." He took a breath and released a sigh. "Ours was to ask for his last request. He said, 'Cure me.' I thought it was a joke. He always made me laugh. Now, I know the extent of my folly."
Blake and Yang waited patiently as the reptilian man seemed to wrestle with his own emotions.
"Months later, I discovered his journal while putting away his things. It seemed he had anticipated infection from the moment he joined The Order. He had been corresponding with a mage named Falion. A mage who was studying a cure."
Yang felt her throat tighten while Blake felt herself almost go limp. Weiss would have stopped by with Falion by now, if not soon. Isran had pretty much confirmed that he had a cure as well. The fact that Among-The-Hist's friend had known about it before he was infected…
"Hey," Yang spoke softly. "You didn't know. You did what you thought was right."
He offered her a smile. "Yours is a statement I am thankful for. Perhaps as the Divines work in the shadows, there is a greater purpose to be found. I thought Arlas' death brought me to Skyrim to save the nobleman's daughter. Now, I wonder if they have a different purpose for me…"
"Hey, everything go well in there?" Serana asked as Yang and Blake exited the cave.
"Yeah. Don't go in. Vampire hunter's waiting inside," the blonde warned her.
"Glad I stayed out, then." She looked around and pointed towards the west. "Found some tracks going that way. Rumarin says it looks like three people."
Yang sniffed. "Probably. I'll have to go full muzzle to be sure. We know the other vampires are out right now. Hist is going to stay here in case any return so he can ambush them."
"Hist?" Serana asked, tilting her head.
"Among-The-Hist," Blake explained. "Argonian vampire hunter. Apparently, he was after one of the vampires we were following."
"Yeah." Yang closed her eyes and scratched at the side of her head. "Serana, if you met a 'wild' vampire who was completely fit, looked healthy, and seemed happy…what would be your impression of them?"
"That they either had a lot of mortal friends who cared about them, or that they were feeding often and without remorse," the vampire princess answered. "Until I met you all, I thought the first option was close to impossible."
"Thought so." Yang recalled the girl's body. If it wasn't for the fangs and the dust that her heart had crumbled into, she would have thought she was just a normal little girl. Thinking about how often she saw Weiss and how underfed she tended to look after turning, the comparison was stark.
"So, what's our next step?" Rumarin asked as he walked over towards them, dispelling his bound bow.
"We're going to chase down that group and make sure they don't hurt anybody," she told him. "We found the plans with their stuff. Looks like they were planning on staying here for a while. Once we get them, we'll be able to head straight back to the Fort."
"Where many more vampire hunters await," Serana said with dripping sarcasm. "Joy."
"What about your friend?" the elf asked.
"We told him he could head there once he was sure he got all the vamps he could from this coven," Yang answered. "Dawnguard could use some mages. …And he could use some friends."
Serana quirked an eyebrow at that, but followed along as Yang and Blake headed towards the trail, Rumarin bringing up the rear.
"Wonder how things are going for Yngvarr?" he wondered aloud.
"Probably already finished up," Yang figured. "can't imagine too many vampires would stand a chance against that old bear."
The trio rode mostly silent. It was clear to Ruby that something was eating at Weiss, though she wasn't sure what exactly. Seeing as it happened right after she talked with Falion about the cure, she figured that she could safely assume that it had something to do with that. Of course, that bit of speculation was worrying in its own right. Did he not have one? Ruby was sure Weiss would have mentioned by now if he didn't. Was it extremely complex? She was sure that Weiss wouldn't be down because of that. She might have even enjoyed a complicated ritual. If not, she would have just been annoyed about it. Finally, after a couple of hours of Weiss brooding in silence, Ruby figured it was time to seek out answers.
"Hey, Weiss?" she said to her friend. The blancette looked up to her.
"Yes?"
"Is everything okay? You've been down in the dumps ever since you spoke with Falion."
Weiss sighed and brushed back her hair. "I… I suppose I should tell you, then." Ruby waited patiently while her friend took a few breaths to collect herself.
"Falion told me the cure."
Ruby smiled brightly. "Weiss, that's some of the best news…" Her eyes snapped open as she recalled Weiss' countenance. "Wait, then why are you so sad? Did you change your mind?"
"No, Ruby. I'd like almost nothing more than to stop being a vampire." Weiss shook her head. "No, it's…what the cure requires. I need a…filled Black Soul Gem."
Ruby flinched back as she took the gem out from her satchel.
"Oh…"
"That's highly illegal, you know," Lydia spoke up from the side. "The usage of Black Soul Gems is restricted to the highest offices of government for-"
"Well, being a vampire is a death sentence, so what does it matter?!" Weiss shouted, a snarl forming. Lydia was momentarily taken aback, but Ruby quickly moved between the two women while waving her hands around to dispel any bad air that could've formed.
"Weiss, it's okay! Lydia doesn't mean anything by it!" Ruby tried to calm her. "It's just… Are you really…"
"I don't know, Ruby. I just don't know," Weiss answered while hanging her head. "I… If I do this, I'll be throwing a soul in my place. I went to get the bounty papers on some of the worst people I've ever…" Weiss closed her eyes and sighed, then took out her binder and opened it up. "At Frostmere Crypt, where we're headed, there are several individuals wanted dead or alive. If anyone deserves to end up in Coldharbour, then I can't imagine someone more deserving than a man wanted for rape, murder, and child-murder. Among other horrid things." Ruby went silent for a moment, and Weiss looked over to her. "I-"
"I can't say it's right," Ruby admitted, cutting Weiss off. "But I'm not… I haven't had to go through what you have. I don't know what it's like. You've told us a little, and we've seen a little, but I don't really understand what you're feeling." Ruby looked up and stared forward along their path. "If being a vampire really is that bad, then I...I trust you in whatever you decide to do about it."
Weiss nodded and looked back at the bounty notes. "Thank you, Ruby. I-" She wanted to say she was sure about what she had to do, but she wasn't, actually. While she had made her peace when it came to having to take a life when necessary, the idea of sacrificing someone's soul was nowhere near settled.
"We're coming up," Lydia told them as an ancient stairway appeared. The distant sound of steel clashing reached their ears moments later, and the girls started urging their horses on before Ruby hopped off and dashed forward with her Semblance. As she emerged out of a cloud of rose petals, a man in mismatched leather balked, seconds before an axe hit his throat. The woman responsible backed away as he fell forward, still defending against two others with a shield on one arm and a now bloodied axe in hand. A Redguard woman stabbed at her, but the strike was deflected downwards before a knee rose up to meet her face, knocking her onto her back. The last man looked more unnerved than he had at the beginning, giving the woman the chance to bash his arms aside and chop down at him. Only his frightened leap back kept his head from being split open, but the blow still raked his chest. As she made to finish him off, Ruby spoke up.
"Wait!" The woman paused and turned around to see the Dragonborn and the other two warriors coming up to her side.
"Who in Dagon's name are you?" she demanded of them. "Speak, or I'll cut you down where you stand."
"Calm down," Ruby told her. "What's going on here? Are you fighting the bandits?"
The woman stared at Ruby for a moment, allowing the others to catch their breath, then sighed. "I was part of the gang in the ruins here. Friend of mine went crazy and stole the boss' sword. They blamed me for it. Look, I'm done here. Mop the floor with these idiots for all I care. Just get out of my way." With that, she began heading away, going down the stairs and then the path, holstering her axe and shield as she did. The woman bandit started struggling up, but Ruby walked over to her. The Redguard looked up in fear and reached for her sword only for Ruby to kick it away before spinning her over.
"Please! No! I'm too young to-!" she started to plead before stopping. "Uh, what are you doing?"
"Tying a knot," Ruby said as she finished up with the leather strap. She tested it to make sure it would hold, then picked up the woman and carried her over to a nearby tree. "Lyd, get the other one."
Lydia walked up to the man and began doing the same for him. He cried out as he was rolled to his belly.
"Gods, I'm done for! Take me, oh Shor!"
"It's not nearly deep enough to kill you," the housecarl grumbled before dragging him off as well. Both bandits were tied to the tree and then their, admittedly minor, wounds were healed.
"So, what was the deal with your friend?" Ruby asked them after they were set.
"Eisa?" the Redguard started. "Well, I'm not too sure. The boss said she and her friend stole his sword and said it was a hundred septims for whoever brought back their heads."
"I thought it was two?" the other bandit asked.
"One for each. At least, that's how I understood it."
"All over a sword?" Weiss asked with a grimace.
"Well, it's something special," the bandit woman continued on. "Found it in the crypt's forest thing. Has this nice, curvy blade and some frost enchantment. And, uh, a fear enchantment of some kind?" The last part she said with uncertainty.
"Oh, I heard of that," the Nord man recalled. "One of the mages said it was an enchantment that would make 'anything weaker than the wielder flee in fear'."
"Oh, like the Spear of Might," Ruby recognized. "Neat."
"You said there were mages," Weiss pointed out while taking out her binder. "How many names can you give us?"
"Oh no, you're bounty hunters," the woman said in deflation.
"Thank the gods I took to wearing masks during raids." He then looked over at them nervously. "It's nothing you can prove!"
"I don't care about you two. Let's just say I'm after bigger fish," Weiss decided to tell them. "Now, what can you tell us?"
Most of the bandits were easily taken down. The first few didn't even notice them coming in, instead embroiled in a conversation about Eisa and her apparent friend, Ra'jirr and how the two were in deep for trying to take their boss' sword. A couple were able to put up the smallest amount of resistance before the three took them down as well. All in all, it was going rather smoothly despite the bad sign at the start.
As Lydia tied one man's arms behind his back while holding him down with a knee, Weiss leafed through her binder to check each one's face. Several were wanted for more minor crimes, but banditry was also there for the majority of them. A couple had murders under their belts, meaning they'd likely face execution after they were turned in, unless they could plead their case well enough and just get a lengthy jail sentence instead. It wasn't uncommon from what she'd heard.
She tried to keep herself occupied by thinking of the amount of coin this would be bringing in. Even petty thieves had half of a denar for their capture. The murderers were worth a thousand septims each if taken alive. However, one took her attention. One gritty-looking bandit was separated from the rest, who were mostly kept in one room almost free of tools and sharp edges. He had been the hardest, relatively speaking. Lydia ended up blackening one of his eyes and breaking his knee before he went down, and he received quite a few cuts in the process. They tied him down to a chair, securing each wrist and elbow individually as well as his ankles and torso. Still, she could see where he had been trying to pull himself free, giving himself ropeburn in the process. He glared at her with eyes full of hate and Weiss looked at his wanted poster for what felt like the thousandth time.
For the crimes of multiple Murders, Child Murder, Rape, and lesser crimes.
She met the man's glare before closing the binder again. He matched the description, and more than a few of his fellows corroborated the charges against him. It seemed he wasn't particularly well liked.
"Well," Weiss began, not sure what to say, if she even should say anything. She reached over to the pocket holding the Black Soul Gem, and the man yanked himself up with a grunt, causing the chair to jump.
"When I get out of here," he growled, and Weiss simply snarled back.
"What? You'll run at us and get pummeled half to death again?" He didn't answer, just keeping that enraged stare. Weiss sighed and crossed her arms. "You've been accused of many high crimes, some of the worse things that can be done to another person included."
"Who cares?" Weiss narrowed her eyes at his second interruption.
"The law cares. The families of those people you've violated throughout the years care!"
"Well I don't." Then he grinned, and Weiss felt her head growing hot. "Well, I guess I do care. Time of my life, just finding a nice little bitch and-"
Weiss' blue blade was at his throat, the tip touching on his Adam's apple and making him lean back. His smile was gone for a moment, but it came back.
"So, you're going to kill me? After all that trouble?" He chuckled, and Weiss felt her teeth grinding. "Eh, no matter. I always knew it'd come down to something like this. I'd either die on someone's blade or at the gallows."
"All those people… And you don't give a damn about them," Weiss muttered.
"Why should I?" It took Weiss a moment before she realized he was completely serious. His expression showed not incomprehension, but a complete lack of interest, as though simply thinking about other people's considerations was an annoyance. "Weren't anyone I knew. Well, maybe that brat was mine, but he was screaming so much. Wouldn't have ever happened if they hadn't grabbed me before-"
His eyes saw Weiss' right hand pull out the Black Soul Gem from its resting place, then they widened. As she lifted it closer to him, some deep part of her felt a tinge of satisfaction that he began squirming uncomfortably and looked at her in fear.
"No, no… You can't be! That… That's illegal!"
"What do you care about what's legal?" she hissed as she held it forward, ready to cast the spell that would pull his soul into it upon his death. He went still, terror taking him over as Weiss was poised to end his life and steal his soul. And she stood there, in that position, not moving an inch. Her jaw clenched tighter, and her grip shifted, but she made no move to cast the spell. Part of her was trying to convince herself to move forward, to end it. It wasn't a difficult spell. She had cast it plenty of times before when helping to hunt. Casting it on sapient beings was no different. It was even how they were taught. The teacher made them cast it on him for practice. Yes, it would be the first time she ever went all the way with taking someone's soul, but if anyone deserved it, it had to be this man. Shouldn't it?
Gradually her jaw loosed and her sword arm lowered. The hand holding the Soul Gem practically dropped to her side as she stared forward.
'I can't do it,' she realized. 'I can't just…' Tears began to sting the edges of her eyes and she turned away while closing them tight as the man appeared to be filled with relief.
"Hehe," he laughed. "Well I-"
Her sword flashed out, and his head rolled off, leaving the stump of his neck to shoot up spurts of blood like some macabre fountain. Weiss glared at the corpse a moment before flicking the blade clear of blood and sheathing it. She then looked at the Black Soul Gem in her right hand and clenched. It began to crack, then shattered into pieces, a whiff of dark magic dispersing from its destruction. Ruby walked in to see what the noise was and blanched at the body before noting the Soul Gem shards scattered around Weiss and gripped in her hand. Not saying a word, the girl walked up to her friend, took her hand while pushing the remaining shards out, and led her out of the room.
"I couldn't do it," Weiss mumbled as the three pressed on into the tomb. Ruby looked over to her and squeezed her hand.
"It's okay, Weiss," she assured her. "I…don't think I could do it, either, if it were me."
"But I still killed him." Her voice felt a little darker, now. "He didn't deserve any mercy. Maybe killing him like that was merciful, in the end. But… Whenever I think about it, do I have any right to throw someone, even a person as evil as that, into Coldharbour in my place?"
"I don't know," Ruby admitted quickly. "I don't know how bad it is, though."
"Have you ever heard those Church of Ash descriptions of Hell?" When Ruby nodded, she sighed. "That, but Daedra instead of demonic Grimm, and less fire."
"Oh…"
"But at the same time, vampires…are privileged." She winced. "For lack of a better term. Can I really excuse myself sending some common soul to be eternally tormented when I…wouldn't be?"
None of them really had an answer for that. After a moment of silence, they came across a table with a journal on it and Ruby let Weiss' hand go to pick it up.
"Oh, this was Eisa's," she said after opening it. She flipped towards the back and started tracing lines while poking her tongue out of the corner of her lips. "Hm, looks like she and Ra'jirr were part of a different group of bandits near the White River, but left them and came here."
"That explains why neither were mentioned in the bounties," Lydia figured. "Different Holds have different criminal records. Only the worst get their crimes recognized by the province as a whole."
"Apparently the guys were trying to dig out the tomb but weren't doing too well, but Eisa had done time in someplace called Cidna Mine, so she was able to direct them better."
"And that's in Markarth," Lydia explained. "It's the largest silver mine in the Reach, if not all of Skyrim."
"Does it explain why people blamed her for their boss' sword being stolen?" Weiss asked, pulling her mind away from the recent whirlwind of emotions she had just experienced. "None of them had the answers."
Ruby flipped through a few more pages before stopping and pulling out a folded piece of paper that didn't fit with the rest of the notebook. She opened it up and scanned over it before reading it aloud.
"'Eisa,
I see her in every shadow. Hear her voice on every breath of wind. In my dreams, in my ears, in my mind. The Pale Lady - we have to stop her. Just return the sword, and we can shut her away forever. I can't take this any more.
I have to do it.
I must.
Ra'jirr'
"
Ruby looked up with pursed lips and focused eyes.
"Okay, it's possible he was cursed," she figured.
"So, he tried to put the sword back in the tomb and Eisa was implicated with him," Weiss deduced. "He tried to get her to go with him, and even though she refused, everyone still believed her to have helped."
"They must be further in," Ruby figured as she set the journal and note aside. "We haven't seen any Khajiit so far, and Ra'jirr is definitely a Khajiiti name. …I think."
They moved on, pushing open a door at the end of a catacomb that led into an open area with a surprising amount of foliage. Despite seeing a few grottos with trees within them before, Ruby was still caught off-guard by the beauty of the underground sanctuary of life, guarded from most of the cold of the outdoors. Weiss stepped in after her and let the sight of the subterranean forest take her before the smell of nearby blood seized her attention. She looked over, and the man lying there groaned and coughed, catching the other two's attentions. Ruby rushed over to him, and he looked up at her through squinting eyes, claw marks across his face and neck and deep gouges pockmarking his body. Weiss saw the pool of blood around him and knew that he wasn't going to make it no matter what kind of potions they gave him.
He gasped in when he saw Ruby. "Finally, someone came… I…" he got out through ragged breaths. "That cat…" A deep gasp. "Ra'jirr…ambushed me. He's trying to take the sword back! I…can't…" He gasped out another breath, then slumped over. Ruby went to check his pulse, but a bright light seemed to come out of the man and speed away.
"What the-"
"Wisp," Weiss recognized. "I don't know what it was doing…inside the man, but they're known to drain people's lifeforce. It must have taken whatever was left of him, and now it's going to its wispmother."
Lydia kneeled down to look over the man's injuries. "This is recent," she noted. "This Ra'jirr is probably still around." The housecarl readied her shield and drew her sword. "Stay alert. If he can do this kind of damage, then he's very dangerous. We shouldn't let ourselves underestimate him."
"Right," the two agreed before they moved out. It was only a short time later that they saw the form of a Suthay-raht Khajiit ahead of them. He was walking towards what looked like an altar with a wavy sword in hand, but then a ghostly form that seemed to be made of ice and mist emerged from in front of it as wisps began to gather, partially surrounding him.
"No! No!" he cried out as he sliced the sword towards the wispmother, though it seemed to do almost no damage to it. Several wisps flew at him, and the Khajiit dodged around them for a moment. Ruby began running towards the fight, intent on helping who she assumed to be Ra'jirr. However, one of the wisps flew down and latched onto her head, blinding her for a moment, making her face cold, and slowly filling her with a sense of lethargy.
"It's draining you!" Weiss warned her as she threw a Firebolt into the thing. It let out a sort of shriek as it was knocked away. Ruby refocused and saw the Khajiit being sprayed with a cone of frost magic by the Pale Lady, covering some of his fur in ice, before two wisps crashed into him from either side and then the wispmother sent a spike of ice into his stomach. He grunted while clutching it with his free hand and fell back. Ruby slashed Crescent Rose at the two wisps that seemed to be draining energy from him, then turned her attention to the Pale Lady. She sliced through her one way, then the other, eliciting two shrieks as she left cuts through her like a hot knife through ice. Before Ruby's eyes, however, the cuts began to close. Several wisps came at her, each one either knocked away or shattered by her swings as she was forced to step back.
She felt something grab her ankle and looked down to see the Khajiit just behind her. He weakly held up the sword as pain spread across his face and blood pooled around him.
"Seal…" he got out past the pain. "Put it…back."
Ruby grabbed the sword by the hilt and looked around. On the altar, she saw a swordrack and put two and two together. She knocked away another wisp and noticed how her friends were fighting off dozens themselves, even as the Pale Lady readied her magic. As she fired a frosty beam at Lydia, who guarded against it with her shield, Ruby rushed past in a burst of petals and set the sword on the altar. The wispmother seemed to gasp, then disappeared. The wisps around them all lost their luminescence and fell like rocks to the ground, lifeless. Ruby sighed, and looked back to the Khajiit, who seemed to have died with a slight grin.
"That was something," Weiss said as she began gathering up the wisp cores. "The sword must have been used to seal that thing away."
"I never knew the Pale Lady was an actual thing," Lydia admitted. "I always figured it was a tall tale about a particularly strong wispmother. I guess that wasn't far off the mark, but I hadn't expected it to be unkillable."
"It wasn't unkillable, I think." Weiss held up one of the wisp cores. "Wisps drain life energy from living things and feed it into their wispmother, giving her more power and, well, life. This one had so many wisps feeding it, probably little by little from the bandits, that it might have just seemed unkillable. It…reminds me a little about some of my readings to do with liches."
"So, we could kill it?" Ruby asked while looking back at the sword. Now that she wasn't in a rush, she could observe it in detail. The blade was wavy like a Kris, the ricasso and chappe having thin iron bands wrapped around them and a pearl inset at their center. The cross-guard was a straight piece for the quillon with parts from the hilt fused to it, the top of which looked like a figurine of the Pale Lady, her arms held up with the hands touching the cross-guard as well as the ghostly clothing in thin metal strips. Gems carved to resemble wisps rested in the figure's palms and above her shoulders on the bottom of the guard. The rest of the hilt flowed from the bottom of her cloak-like clothing and spread into a wrist-guard near the bottom, with the pommel being made from some sort of crystal. Ruby reached over to pick it up and take a closer look, but as soon as she had it in hand, the Pale Lady reappeared behind the altar. Ruby shouted in surprise and put it back, the ghostly being glaring at her as she did before fading once again.
"What the…" Weiss got out. "Why'd you do that?"
"I was going to put it back," Ruby defended. "I just thought it would take her a while to come back."
"This…actually bodes ill," Lydia said as she ran her fingers down her chin. "These bandits had to dig this place out, but the next group to come here won't have such an obstruction. Someone else may take the sword later, and the Pale Lady will come up again, killing them if they haven't gone already. There's no telling what it could do once it's loose."
Ruby looked back at the sword in worry, then snapped her fingers.
"I've got it!"
Lydia reached out and took up the sword. A moment later, the Pale Lady appeared, looking ready to strike her down. As the wispmother readied her magics, a sword burst through her chest from out her back, glowing white hot. Ruby held Dawnbreaker in place as the Pale Lady shrieked, fire covering the ghostly being and reducing it to ash as an explosion of blue energy ripped out from it.
"Huh, so it is undead," Ruby said before sheathing the sword. "Weiss, it's safe now!"
The vampire came down from the hillside looking at the bits and pieces scattered around the ashes of the wispmother and shivered. "That sword scares me."
"It's just a sword," Ruby reassured her. "It can't do anything without being used, and I'm not going to use it in a way that endangers my BFF."
"Thank you for that."
Lydia handed the Pale Blade over to Ruby, who looked it over and ran a thumb over the blade.
"Yep, like the guys up front said. Powerful frost, stamina drain, and fear enchantment." Ruby held it out and gave a practice swing with it before holding it over to Weiss. "Here," she offered.
"Are you sure?" the heiress asked while taking it in hand, getting a feel for the weight and balance of it.
"I've got half a dozen swords already," Ruby assured her. "And the Spear of Might. This suits your theme more anyways, and it can be a backup in case anything ever happens to Strahlendjuwel."
"Did you not give her that ghostly sword?" Lydia asked. "What happened to that?"
"I sent it back to the College for study," Weiss explained. "The…balance was different from what I'm used to, on top of it being a single-bladed weapon. I figured I didn't need it anymore when Ruby finished Strahlendjuwel."
"Not even as a backup?" the housecarl pressed.
"…I didn't think about it. And I'm genuinely curious as to whether or not it can be replicated." Weiss looked back down at the sword and made a few katas with it. Despite its elegance, the feel was different from a rapier, actually reminding her somewhat of the early days of her training, when she first tried using sabers in imitation of her older sister. Winter had quickly dissuaded her of that derivative impulse in favor of finding her own style, but that experience should still allow her to wield the Pale Blade competently enough. "Thank you, Ruby." She strapped it to her side and looked back up the stairs she had gone up to avoid Dawnbreaker's effects. "Oh, by the way, there was one of those Word Walls up there."
"Oh, cool What'd it say?"
Weiss gave her a dead stare and Ruby giggled. "Kidding. All right, then. Let's go."