Epilogue: Day Keeper, Night Reaper

The Dragonborn looked at the skeleton and bent his head on both sides. 'Would you help me move that femur?' he asked, pointing at the fiendishly large but short femur-like bone that lied on the other side.

'Which way should it go?' Valerica asked.

'A little left. It wouldn't coincide with the rest of the abdomen otherwise.' Azrael stepped to the side, circling around the huge shape made up by those thick Dragon bones. The skeleton didn't look as large and intimidating as the beasts themselves, but it was big enough to inspire a sense of awe. Those bones, however, seemed worn out. Old and withered.

Serana quietly looked at Azrael and her mother as they worked to painstakingly put the lines of the skeleton back exactly where they belonged. Only by casting telekinetic spells at the same time had they been able to move the bones without disrupting all the work they had already put in it. They really were two minds alike. Their coordination was a testament to that.

Valerica closed her hand and looked at the legbone. 'How does it look?'

'It's well aligned.'

The two exchanged a glance. 'Whatever it is you want to do, can you do it now?' she asked.

The Dragonborn nodded. 'I believe I can.'

Azrael let his shoulders fall, relaxing, and he closed his eyes for a moment under the dark shadow of the hood. He spread his arms a little wider, as if trying to grasp the air around him. As always, there was no change in the veil between Aetherius and their plane. As hard as it was to believe, what he summed wasn't magic in the traditional sense.

'Slen Tiid Vo!'

Reality altered for a moment. Serana felt it as a slight lightheadedness, but she knew that there was much more than that. Valerica watched intently, half curious and half impressed. There were Men and Mer who believed that power could be gained only through devious means and was evil by nature. And yet, there was a form of power that either came from a natural gift or through years of discipline. Power truly was something immaterial and out of the world, and one could then influence events with it.

The skeleton of the Dragon slowly began to glimmer. The air around it filled with glittering fragments that shone in the light of the setting Sun. Those fragments gathered around the bare bones, depositing on them or a little distance from them, and as they assembled they took the shape and aspect of sturdy scales. The two women looked at it, unable to think of it as anything else than a miracle, as time contracted and moved in ways it was never meant to have taken.

One little piece at the time, Durnehviir came back together to his old splendor. Valerica was the only one who had seen the old Dragon at his peak, when his scales were still of a shining orange and the crests and ridges on his head were sharp and intimidating. The wings came back to their shape, not tattered and torn but full, membranous and with sharp claws at their end.

'Dovrahkren, Thuri,' he said. His voice still sounded old, but it was vigorous. 'Mul Paal Qahnaar. You have pitted yourself against the Ideal Masters and… Kron.'

Azrael crossed his arms, looking the Dragon in his deep golden eyes. 'Mal fah Zeymah. A small risk, in comparison to what I could have given you.'

Durnehviir turned towards Valerica, seemingly recognizing her without even looking. 'Krosis. I hope you hold no… Rahgot… against me. I was doing my master's bidding.'

Valerica smiled faintly. 'As all of us do. You did not wish for my suffering. You only wanted to save your own. I can respect that.'

The Dragon bowed his orange, majestic head and turned once again towards the Dragonborn, muttering a few words in his tongue. Serana and Valerica exchanged a glance and they circled around the Dragon. They met near his wing, which he retracted to let them come closer.

'It's all over, then,' Serana said.

Valerica nodded slowly. 'Yes. It's all over.' Her eyes wondered to Castle. The main hall had collapsed on itself, and a crater was left where it once stood. Fallen towers, walls darkened by Dragons' fire and piles of rock and gravel were all that remained of the main part of the Castle. 'I didn't think I would have such a strong reminder of it. I don't know if I like being reminded of what happened, now that I can finally put it behind me.'

'You still have a home.'

'I do,' she said, this time looking at her tower, which was still intact safe for a long scratch in the roof. 'And I will admire the devastation every day as I wake at dusk.'

Serana felt something strange at her mentioning that sign of what was a normal life. 'What will you do?'

'I will return to my research. There is much about the Soul Cairn I must learn still, and Azrael had mentioned a few alchemical ingredients I have never heard of. They must have not been widespread in our time.' She looked at her daughter with a curious look. 'You don't need to worry about me. I'll be happy to go back to my old life.'

'I thought you had all the alone time in the world.'

'Yes, but I was away from the things that really interested me. It was not quite the same thing.'

Serana found it incredible. They would finally have something resembling, in a very distorted way, a normal life. She and Azrael would do whatever needed to be done and have something new to worry about. Her mother would settle in her tower, the only thing left of the Castle, and maybe she could even drop by from time to time. However, she realized only now that she didn't want a normal family. She wanted no tranquility, and it is after the idea of tranquility that most families form from.

Valerica almost seemed to hear and misinterpret her thoughts at the same time. 'You can come visit me anytime, child,' she said. 'You'll always be welcome, now that this is my personal stronghold.'

'We'll come by,' she said.

Next to them, Durnehviir roared loudly and pounded his wings powerfully, lifting into the air. 'Stin!' he screamed, before another beat brought him higher. Then he stopped and elongated his neck towards the South, gliding straight back towards Skyrim. The gusts raised by his wings pushed mother and daughter back a little, which it left Azrael unfazed as his watched the Dovah flying away and screaming at the sky the joy of freedom.

'So even if one of them had died in the attack…' Valerica said, leaving the phrase unfinished.

'It's not quite as easy, but yes,' Azrael said. 'I might have been able to bring him back.'

Valerica had felt hopeful when him and Serana had first come down in the Cairn, and her hopes had turned into something more concrete as he saw how much her daughter had changed and how her new-found companion had brought down the Dragon. Her determination had waned when they had not come back for all those weeks, but she had been repaid in full for her patience. Seeing Durnehviir submitting to Azrael's blade a second time with the promise that he would be freed forever of his captivity and the battle for the possession of his soul with the Ideal Masters had been a sight to behold. Valerica couldn't say that she had got a grip of Azrael. He was enigmatic, cold and elusive in ways that she couldn't fully understand. But she respected him, both for his strength, unbreakable will and unparalleled acumen. And she trusted her daughter.

She had never though she'd have so much respect for the person who could be thought of as her son-in-law.

She looked at both her daughter and the Dragonborn. 'If we're done, I'll get back in my tower. Four millennia of absence have left my laboratory in quite the mess.'

Azrael nodded. 'You can go.'

Serana looked at her mother as she walked away, wondering if she had sensed the tone in Azrael's voice, too. There was a note of compulsion. He wanted to speak to Serana alone.

He didn't want long, just enough to be out of earshot, although the earshot of a pureblooded vampire is quite long. 'Are you well?' he asked.

Serana looked down for a moment. 'I have just murdered my father. I don't think anyone would feel well after that. But yes, I am as solid as I can be, given the circumstances.'

She listened at how she spoke. It was Azrael who often made explicit how some things were not absolutely true. Considering the situation, given the circumstances… He often said those things, and she had picked up on that as well. Being with him all those months had been a battle against her distaste for ambiguity as much as it had been to take down her father.

'There was one thing I wanted to talk to you about,' Azrael said. 'I think we don't need to clear up that, even after this, I'll never manage to stay put. You know me, or at least enough of me. I suspect you've already made your peace with that.'

'Yes, of course.'

'On the other hand, there is something I can do. I could call in a favor from the Jarl of the Pale. He once offered me a patch of land, and now I believe I have just the idea for what to do with it.'

'Meaning?'

'Since this castle is destroyed,' he said, pointing at the ruins, 'I have decided I'll build one that will inherit its spirit, if not its size. It'll be a lair as much as a home, and it will be all ours. I'll have all I might ever need to keep myself occupied there, and perhaps that will keep me longer in one place. I am not quite as restless when my mind is focused.'

'And… You'll pardon me for asking, but what about the two of us?'

The Dragonborn tittered. 'Yes, together. Until boredom do us part, as I said. In fact…' he paused for a moment. 'It's a long story, but I've played the guardian to a young girl in Windhelm who would need a roof over her head. How would Valerica feel about being a grandmother?'

'You could do that?'

'I can. She'd accept. I'll have to do it subtly, or the whole of Skyrim will hear about it. But I can.'

Serana looked at him for a long time, speechless. Azrael threw back his hood, letting the long black hair fall down on his shoulders. He approached her, and she kissed him before he could come any closer. 'It all sounds great,' she whispered.

'I hoped so. You'll see. We'll live lives the ones around us will barely dream of. The world will no longer need neither a Dawnguard to shield them nor the Volkihar to scare them. We'll be the ones. We'll be the worshipped keepers of the day and the dreaded reapers of the night.'

The two vampires embraced as the Sun went out.

A/N: The end. For all those who have read through this and are ready to leave, farewell. Mark the story as Favorite and Review if you so wish. I hope you have enjoyed the journey.

For those who are still with me, there is more. For clarity's sake, DKNR will be my last work on this site. However, when I began writing this behemoth of a novel I had no idea what would come next, and there are a million ideas left in the drawer. Just to give you a taste of what could have happened after this ending and to let everyone play with their imagination to their heart's content, I will provide the details of the few that I would have probably followed. This is a list of the various pieces I had thought of that could be follow-ups to DKNR:

1) When the World Remembers: The title is a pretty clear reference. Azrael and Serana are attacked in their house in the Pale, at which they begin an investigation that — through a different route than the game — leads them together to Solstheim. They follow the investigation on two fronts, and Serana and Azrael split. Serana investigates the Skaal, finding much in common with their traditions, while Azrael helps Neloth with his investigation. The two Dunmer bond over the proficiency of their creative minds, and Azrael is recognized a member of House Telvanni, and has contact with other Dunmer. In the process, they destroy the Morag Tong — who, for those who read The Assassin, are the reason Azrael had to leave Morrowind in the first place. At the end, only Azrael enters Apocrypha after him and Serana "share notes", and he defeats Miraak, defying Herma Mora - the same way he did Nocturnal in Thief of Lives - and bringing the body of the First Dragonborn to the Throat of the World to be buried.

2) The Forsaken Child: Ever wondered why I kept bringing up Azrael's daughter? Well, this story is why. It was supposed to begin when a young Dunmeri girl washes ashore after her ship sank, and wakes up as a looter is taking her possessions from what he believed to be a corpse. Since he's the only person who can help her, she befriends him and lives with him, eventually starting a romantic relationship. The dunmeri girl shows herself to be brazen and bold, and they end up going for a few heists. They are spotted one day and the robbed man performs the Black Sacrament. Azrael sends one of the younger initiates to take care of the matter, and we follow the young man in his search for the thieves. He finds them, but the dunmeri girl manages to kill him with fire magic. Upon finding the dead initiate, Azrael becomes curious of who two might be and sets off to find them. He chases them for a while, and the red eyes of Shadowmere watching them become a haunting sight for the two young thieves. Azrael sneaks in one night, killing the boy and almost the girl too before seeing her and realizing she's his long lost daughter. They part ways, since she's horrified by what her once secretive yet simple father had become, but then decides to go towards him. At home, Serana convinces Azrael to go look for her. They meet as the girl, whose name is Laila, is making her way to his mansion, and she's welcome into the family (She changes her life to such depth that Azrael comes to consider the contract as fulfilled).

3) Evgir Unslaad: Literally meaning "Season Unending", this was to be my take on the Civil war. It was written with a mystery-thriller style, relying on excerpt from history books and letters, and followed different characters and story arcs, like Elisif's, Ulfric's, Brynjolf's and many others, plus two OCs who would occupy the position that the PC would play in the Legion and Stormcloak campaigns respectively. Azrael doesn't intervene in the war, though it is mentioned that he makes frequent visits to Elisif and he is visited by some of the combatants for advise, as his strategic acumen and intelligence are well known. After retaking the Rift and battling fiercely on the walls of Markarth, the Stormcloaks win a decisive battle in the Reach and march straight towards Solitude before an imperial Legion could come in from the South. They siege and take Solitude, but Elisif challenges Ulfric to a duel — like what the Bear of Eastmarch had done with her late husband. Ulfric lets her come close, thinking that she is embracing an honorable death, but Elisif gets close to him and sticks a knife in his neck, which she had hid inside her hair. With Ulfric dead, the Stormcloaks are on the run and a few mysterious events — hinting at Azrael's hidden influence — move the war back in the Empire's favor. Elisif marches victorious inside Windhelm alongside General Tullius and is proclaimed High Queen of Skyrim by the moot. In the epilogue, where she discusses the politics of Tamriel with Azrael, it is revealed that it was him who taught her to the trick she killed Ulfric with.

4) Dragon Lord: All the politics discussed in the Epilogue of Evgir Unslaad is not for fun. Dragon Lord kicks off with Azrael maneuvering in order to provoke the Aldmeri Dominion into beginning a new Great War, which he succeeds in doing. Him and Serana remain in the background while Skyrim's troops march down to support the Empire. With the support of Serana - who has made quite a reputation for herself as a benevolent yet elusive guardian angel to many people - Laila's unconventional tactics and Azrael's strategic acumen earn them a few victories, before their are forced into an impasse. There is a silent truce, but then things start going bad for the Altmer. Their generals are assassinated one by one and their troops report rumors of monsters prowling in the night. Through glimpses, it is revealed that Azrael had unleashed everything at his disposal to him them, with the logistics being coordinated by Delphine. The Dominion tries to circle them by attacking Hammerfell, at which point Azrael, Serana and Skyrim's army go there and fight in a long section set in the deserts. After that, we follow Elisif for a while as Azrael departs for lands unknown. He returns with a large contingent of Dunmer, and they prepare a fight with the Dominion. The battle ensues, and the entire Dominion army is led into a large valley where they think they will be able to exterminate their enemies. However, just as the battle commences, two hundred Dragons come out of the mountains and annihilate their forces. The Dominion falls back, its army decimated. Azrael, as Dragonborn, is offered the Empire, but he abdicates in favor of Elisif; they say that they will groom a new leader together, at which point they will return to the North. Azrael, de facto, is the ruler of the Empire and the most powerful individual of all of Nirn; people begin calling him "Dragon Lord", and everyone knows that he commands everything behind the curtain.

5) No big story here, just a collection of short stories.
Meridia's Lie, in which the Champion who claimed Dawnbreaker — which in this "canon" or "timeline" isn't Azrael — follows the trace of a dangerous vampire, only to find out he's the Dragonborn himself. He follows him to his home, where Azrael invites him in. After a long talk, the undead hunter becomes convinced that the undead who need to be killed are the ones who suffer because of un-death, such a the victims of necromancers.
Quagmire, a horror story, acts as a prequel to DKNR. It follows the aftermath of the destruction of the Skull of Corruption. Vermina torments Azrael with nightmares for what he has done, and so he asks Erandur how to enter Quagmire and face the Dreamweaver himself. After preparations, he enters and endures the most terrible tortures before confront the Dreamweaver, who forgives him and considers him strong and worthy of admiration. As he goes out of Quagmire, Azrael realizes he no longer fears anything like he did before. This is part of why he manages to remain so composed during the events of DKNR, feeling no fear and only restlessness and sometimes anger, as compared to The Assassin, where he has been afraid of death and defeat a fair few times.

This is the long and short of it. Have fun speculating. As I said, I will probably write nothing more here. I will go through a systematic revision of all of my stories to correct as many mistakes as I can find and will certainly continue to monitor the site, but nothing more.

Take care, everyone.