Chapter 25:
Messages
As dawn approached they reached the little village of Beitostølen. Clearly catered towards the tourism trade, it was home to many cabins and hotels. The buildings were large, red, wood-slatted affairs. The largest of these was that belonging to the ski resort. Leading out from town and up into the surrounding mountains was a series of metal poles and cables. From these were suspended curious bench-like structures.
"What are they used for?" Serana asked as they walked along the snow-covered streets.
"They're ski lifts," Emily explained, "People use them to get up the mountain when they're going skiing."
"Why not just use a cable car?" Serana asked.
"Cable cars are kind of awkward to use when you're wearing skis," Emily replied, "Think long flat boards attached to the feet and used to slide down a mountain at high speeds." Serana chuckled.
"I see your point," she said, "So, let's see about finding somewhere for the day."
"It could be pretty rough," Emily replied, "By the look of this place, we've arrived during the skiing season. We've got a couple of hours though. We'll check around."
As it was they got lucky at the fourth cabin they checked at. The furnishings were a good deal more comfortable than the spartan accommodations of the day previous and so the day passed relatively quickly. Emily awoke around four in the afternoon. Outside the sun had already set and she sat up and stretched. Serana was already awake and looking out of the window.
"Sun sets early here, huh?" she said as Emily joined her at the window.
"At this time of year, yeah," Emily replied.
"Seems like a vampire's paradise," said Serana, resting her arms on the window sill.
"Yeah, though there's no vampires but us to enjoy it," Emily replied.
"You told me that before but…now we're here," said Serana, "It feels kind of…unreal. We're the only vampires in this entire world."
"Pretty crazy, huh?" smiled Emily.
"No crazier than why we're here," Serana replied.
"You've got me there," said Emily, resting a hand on Serana's arm, "Come on, we've got a couple of hours before the bus leaves. How about we get something to drink?"
"They got anything other than coffee?" Serana asked.
"How about an orange juice?" Emily offered.
As the clock above the sofa struck six they packed away the last of their things and left the cabin. Emily led Serana down the frozen village streets. The area of Beitostølen they found themselves in looked to be a shopping district home to grocery stores, sports shops and restaurants. They encountered several others on the way to the bus park. They were mostly tourists, dressed in heavy winter coats, gloves and hats. Several shouldered large backpacks and one overenthusiastic holiday maker had elected to wear his snowshoes in the comparatively shallow snow drifts that occupied the streets. They were chatting excitedly among themselves and Emily was able to detect at least two different languages in use. They stopped alongside the bus stop in the parking area where two other tourists, a man and a woman, were already standing.
"Hei hei, skal du til Lysaker Stasjon?" said the man. Emily looked blank for a moment. Then she replied.
"Jeg beklager, jeg snakker ikke norsk," she said.
"No worries," replied the man in perfect English, "I was just asking if you're going to Lysaker?"
"Yeah, we are," said Emily.
"Thank goodness for that," said the woman, "We were afraid we'd missed the bus." Emily checked her watch.
"No, no, it doesn't arrive for another," she paused, "Five minutes or so."
"Hey, you're not from Somerset are you?" asked the woman.
"Yeah, I am," Emily replied.
"Small world," said the man, "We're from Bristol, your neighbours in the North." He chuckled and the woman nudged him playfully in the ribs.
"Small world indeed," Emily smiled, "I'm Emily by the way. And this is Serana."
"Nice to meet you, I'm Yvonne," replied the woman, "And this is Michael."
"You here on holiday then?" asked Michael. Emily shook her head.
"I'm afraid not," she replied, "Business." This was not the answer she would've chosen but it was the most believable and perhaps the closest to the truth they could get without arrest and imprisonment.
"We've been here on our honeymoon," said Yvonne, "One month today."
"That's great," Emily replied. Michael smiled at Serana who was standing a step back.
"Where's your friend from?" he asked. His tone was friendly but Serana looked more uncertain than ever.
"Sera's from Somerset too," Emily replied.
"And what kind of business brings you out here?" Yvonne asked. To Emily's surprise it was Serana who answered.
"Botany," she replied, "We were up studying the plants. To see what uses we can find for them in medicine."
They looked up as a distant rumbling met their ears. Trundling up the road was a long white bus. The two wing mirrors perched at the front put Serana in mind of an ant. Slush billowed out from under its wheels and its windscreen wipers were working furiously to deal with the first flakes that were starting to fall. It drew up opposite them and the doors opened. Emily gestured for Yvonne and Michael to get on first before climbing on after them.
"Two tickets to Lysaker please," she said. She pulled out some money she had withdrawn from the ATM and handed it over to the bus driver. Serana followed her back along the bus a little ways where they took a seat by the window. Serana looked out of the window at the village streets and the rows upon rows of houses lining them. The bus rumbled and she started slightly from the sound. These earthly transports with the exception of the bicycle all had one thing in common. They were noisy and they had an awful habit of going quiet and lulling you into a false sense of security before rumbling back into life again.
The bus pulled out from the bus park and began its journey down the road. Pale streetlights served to light their way out of the village and back out into the untamed wilderness.
"How long do you think we'll be on the road for?" Serana asked.
"About three hours I think," Emily replied, "Then we can get the train into Oslo and start looking for information."
"Where do you plan on looking?" Serana asked. Emily shrugged her shoulders.
"Honestly, Sera, I'm not sure," she replied, "We can check the newspapers. And if we get a hotel with a television we can check the news stations."
"And that'll tell us where this Miraak is?" Serana asked.
"It will if he's caused a stir," Emily replied, "And with the knowledge of Herma Mora and being in a world that isn't his own, I'll be more surprised if he hasn't." Serana rested her head against Emily's shoulder.
"Have you thought about what you're going to do?" she asked.
"To be honest with you, Sera, I've been trying to think of it as little as possible," she replied.
"You know you'll have to eventually," said Serana.
"I know," Emily replied, giving her shoulders a squeeze.
"Em," said Serana after a moment's pause.
"Hmm?" Emily asked.
"What's a honeymoon?" Serana asked. She looked up at Emily.
"It's a holiday newlyweds go on," she replied, "Like a celebration of their marriage and when they share their first…shall we say…intimate experience." Although vampires are unable to blush Serana still gave a good impression of doing so.
"Why would they come all the way out here?" Serana asked, "The last time I checked, mortals don't like the cold."
"It's exotic," Emily explained, "Well, exotic to anyone from Britain. It gets cold there but doesn't usually snow. Just rains."
"Sounds lovely," Serana replied with a note of sarcasm evident in her voice.
"Where would you go?" Emily asked. The question seemed to take Serana off guard.
"I don't know," she replied, "Someplace warm. Maybe Elsweyr. The Topal sea."
"The moonlight shining on the sea, hmm?" said Emily, resting her head against Serana's. Serana's fingers began absentmindedly tracing small patterns on the back of her hand. Emily smiled as she looked out of the window, watching the landscape as it steadily changed. When they first left the village behind small deciduous trees grew close to the roadside, blurred together by the speed of the bus. But as they went further out into the country these gave way to towering coniferous trees that grew thick and woody. The road they travelled was split in two with a rough gravelly track running up the centre. Tussocks of grass and small spindly plants grew up out of the gravel and snow and were buffeted by the wind left in the wake of the bus. The landscape grew gradually more mountainous and Serana looked out of the window at the edge of the road where it sharply dropped away into a breath-taking ravine. They passed small laybys and byways, isolated homesteads and farmsteads. After a while they began to doze.
Serana awoke sometime later as the sound of the engine began to reverberate around them. She looked out of the window at the bright lights which lined the stone tunnel they were speeding down. She leant over and shook Emily awake. She yawned and looked out at the tunnel.
"What's happening?" Serana asked.
"I think this is the Skuitunnelen," Emily replied, "The Ski tunnel. We must be nearly there." Serana sat back in the chair.
"Are you alright?" Emily asked. Serana nodded.
"Yeah, I'm fine, it's just," she replied, "All this. Cable cars, ski lifts, buses. It's a lot to take in."
"I know," Emily said gently, resting a hand on Serana's.
They left the tunnel after several minutes and found that the landscape around them had changed drastically. Gone were the mountains and coniferous forests, replaced by scrubby heathland and large deciduous trees with russet orange leaves. The road on which they travelled was wider and better maintained. Gone was the gravel track running up the centre. They passed under metal frameworks from which were suspended black screens. These, Emily explained, were to show which lanes were open. The roads were heavily populated with cars, trucks and vans. They moved with the bus in steady procession towards the city of Sandvika. Lysaker, their destination, lay just beyond. From the motorway they could see large buildings, some easily the size of Castle Dour. These were home to coach depots, offices and other places of business. Through two more tunnels the road took them and then up and round in a great loop which brought them to Sandvika itself. On one side they saw the Oslofjord, a large body of water connecting to the Skagerrak Strait and the North Sea. Row upon row of docks lay mostly empty with only a small amount of sailing ships, their sails down, occupying the berths. On the other side lay high concrete walls and beyond these, perched on the hills, were houses. Large, two pronged streetlamps cast large orange pools of light on the road ahead as they drove through Sandvika. After making a brief stop at the bus terminal they were on the road again.
At last the bus pulled up outside the train station.
"Hey, maybe we'll see you on the plane," Michael said as he waved to them before he and Yvonne headed for the road. Emily and Serana waved after them.
The train tracks themselves were located on a level above the road. They got off the bus and Emily led Serana in through the front entrance, past eateries and towards the ticket office. With their tickets purchased they made their way up the stairs to the platform. Serana looked over the edge of the platform at the parallel metal tracks with its wooden sleepers buried in a shallow layer of gravel.
"So this train is going to come along here," she said, pointing down the track, "And it's longer than a bus but it will keep to these tracks and we're in no danger whatsoever."
"That's right," Emily replied.
"And if the driver were to lose his concentration or make a mistake?" Serana questioned.
"It wouldn't matter, well, not to use as such," Emily replied, "The train's wheels are locked into these tracks. It can't move from them." She looked down at the far end of the platform before checking her watch. "The train should be along soon," she said, "And once we get to Oslo we'll book a hotel. Then we can start looking."
As Serana turned she spotted a train approaching the platform on the opposite side. It moved at such speed that she reflexively took a step back from the platform's edge. As it drew nearer the sound increased from a distant rumble to a deafening roar mixed with a rhythmic clatter as it went over the tracks. It drowned out all other sound and made Emily squeeze her eyes shut, blotting out all thought. The noise had been deafening as a mortal. As a vampire it was now overwhelming and she saw it was having much the same effect on her companion. She reached for her hand and squeezed her fingers as the sound continued. And then it was gone as quickly as it had come, leaving them blinking and rubbing at the sides of their heads.
"I hope we don't have to do too much of this," said Serana, "I've never heard anything so loud."
"They were always loud before," Emily replied, "But this time was…worse."
After several minutes passed their train arrived. As it was beginning to slow before it reached the station the noise had dwindled to the rumble of the engine and screech of brakes by the time it reached them. They got on and took a seat at one of the tables. The elevated position of the train upon the tracks afforded them a much better view of their surroundings. The train brought them to the town of Lillestrøm. Though only a town it was a good deal larger than the cities of Solitude and Windhelm. As she looked up at the towering buildings Serana found herself wondering what this city Emily had mentioned would be like. Surely it could not possibly be much larger. Many of the buildings were cube-like and solid in structure.
They found a hotel close to the station where Emily checked them into a room. She glanced at her watch.
"Okay, we've got a couple of hours until morning," she said, "I think our best bet is to find a newsagents and get a copy of the paper."
"Won't any newspaper be in the native tongue these people speak?" Serana asked.
"Don't worry, I thought about that," Emily replied, "We can bring it back to our hotel room with us. I can get my phone charged up there and we can run the headlines through the translator."
The newsagents they found was situated on a street corner close to the hotel. Serana kept close to Emily as they walked down the street. Even at this late hour they were not the only ones on the street. Several others passed them along the way. A few were evidently coming home from a party and they heard them before they saw them, their raucous singing filling the night air. It occurred to Serana that revellers were the same wherever you went. Noisy and unsteady with a tendency to cross your path entirely without meaning to. One of them called out to them good-naturedly before stumbling on.
Emily pushed open the door to the newsagents and they stepped inside. The man behind the counter was broad shouldered and muscular with black hair, much of which curled out from just above his ears, leaving the rest of his scalp bald. He was reading from one of the newspapers he had plucked from the large pile in front of him and a cigar poked out of the corner of his mouth. The two vampiresses crossed over to where the newspapers were arranged, each paper given its own box. Emily looked over the newspapers. This was not something she had ever shopped for before during her brief time in Norway prior to finding the portal to Tamriel. In the end she selected the newspaper with the boldest print and before approaching the counter she picked up a bottle of fizzy pop from the refrigerated cabinet. She handed over the money and the man nodded, still puffing on his cigar, taking it and giving them change from the till. They left the shop and returned to the hotel.
The hotel was a good deal larger than either of the accommodation they had stayed in before. The foyer was given over to the front desk and a series of small sofas and armchairs placed around an extravagant-looking fireplace. Across the foyer was a set of sliding metal doors. These concealed a small chamber which Emily called an elevator. It was startlingly similar to those they had found in the Dwemer ruins of Blackreach though Serana noted that it was a good deal quieter. Their room was on the fourth floor. A large window afforded them a view of the train station. Unlike the cabin there was no seating area. Much of the room was given over to the double bed which had white linen sheets and a heavy colourful duvet. A wooden table stood opposite and on this sat a black square device Emily called a television and a small white kettle accompanied with several sachets of coffee and tea. A small adjoining room held a fully outfitted bathroom which was supplied with several towels and small bottles containing shampoo and soap.
Emily kicked off her shoes as she sat down on the bed and pulled her phone from her pocket. She plugged it into a charger and spread out the newspaper before her. Serana sat down next to her and she opened the bottle of fizzy pop. They passed it back and forth between one another as they waited for the phone to gain enough charge to function. At last it switched on and Emily unlocked it. She was about to open the translator app when she noticed the small envelope icon at the top left hand corner of the screen. Curious, she tapped on it. She blinked a couple of times in unmasked surprise. The phone showed seven unread messages, all from the same number. It was a number she recognised.
"Maylene?" she said.
The first four were dated from shortly after her arrival in Skyrim and had only just come through. Two were dated at roughly monthly intervals from the first four but the final one was dated roughly three days ago. She opened the message.
'So, you finally decided to read my messages? Where are you? Where have you been?'
Emily closed the message centre.
"That's weird," she said.
"What is it?" Serana asked.
"She sent me a bunch of messages while I was in Skyrim," Emily explained, "Then silence for literally months and then she sent me another message the day we came to Earth. Has she been monitoring those messages all this time?"
"Didn't you tell her before you left that you were ending your relationship with her?" Serana asked. Emily shook her head.
"Not exactly," she replied, "I told her I needed time to think. I didn't count on disappearing off the face of the earth for over a year though." She chuckled but stopped when she noticed the serious expression on Serana's face.
"What are you going to do now?" she asked. Emily rested a hand on Serana's arm.
"Not a thing," she replied, "I've had my time to think and my time in Skyrim has showed me what it's like to be around people who don't treat me like trash. At most I'll tell her I've moved on. But I don't want to see her."
"I understand," Serana said quietly, shifting a little closer to the Earthling, "So, how about these newspapers?"
The woman stared intently at the message on the screen. One tick next to the message turned to two, glowing blue to signify the message had been read.
"She's here," she said to the man who sat across the table from her, "Now what? We could board a plane tomorrow and get over there."
"No need, Maylene," came the smooth reply, "Why go to all that bother when we can simply get them to come to us?"
"All right, and how are we going to do that?" Maylene asked, "I doubt she even remembers where to look."
"Just leave it to me, Maylene," Mathias replied, "And don't worry, I'll let you have a little chat with her before I claim her soul and we can return to Tamriel together."
Emily lay back on the bed. Nothing. None of the papers highlighted anything even remotely resembling a disturbance caused by a man who possessed the powers of knowledge and fate. There were no vast tentacles recorded emerging from the sea, no eyes filling the skies, no inky black cloud covering entire cities and blotting out the sun. Nothing. Serana lay next to her. She was watching a video Emily had shown her. Much of it meant nothing to her as these "memes", as they called themselves, were largely relating to events and bits of artistic culture on earth known as movies. Still, it was interesting to see what Earthlings watched to amuse themselves.
"What does a woman yelling at a cat mean?" Serana asked. She showed Emily the video.
"I think it's a reaction meme," she replied, "Like where you take a situation that you think fits with the picture and you put in the words to make it fit." Serana frowned.
"I…see," she replied. Emily chuckled.
"It's one of Earth's stranger forms of humour," she said as she got up and made her way over to the window. She pulled the curtains closed as the sky outside was beginning to lighten. She then took up a small piece of card with the words, 'Do not disturb,' written on it.
"I'd better put this up," she said, "Hotels aren't used to having nocturnal visitors." She hung the piece of card from the outside handle of the door to the room before re-joining Serana on the bed. She huddled under the covers and picked up the television remote, turning the television onto a comedy channel. Though in a foreign tongue the universal language of laughter was one easily understood and the television programme soon became a new source of interest to the vampiress. Forgetting their worries for a brief time, she nestled closer to the Earthling, sharing in the humour the comedy provided as the sun rose outside the hotel.