Chapter 62: The Wolf Queen Awakened

[17th of Evening Star 4E 201]

Falk Firebeard, the steward in Solitude, had told us hat there was another Potema related problem, and while Athis prepared to travel back to Whiterun, Fiona, her housecarl Rayya, Janina, Antonius and I got instructions from the local priest of Arkay. In the city's temple we were shown to the entrance to the catacombs, where we would hopefully find remains of the wolf queen's body.

Fortunately our eyes had already adapted to the dim light, but the passage ahead of us was not fully dark. Rather, some light came in from somewhere, although I could not see the light sources. A short passage led to a set of stairs, and once we had gone down, a gate with horizontal bars blocked our way. We had not been given a key for that, but as soon as we are all gathered there, the dim light around us flickered and a disembodied strange voice started to speak:

"You've arrived at last. The hero who prevented me from being bound returns to my fold. I have much to thank you for, little one. When you die I will raise you and you can take your place by my side. You'll serve me soon enough."

With the last words the gate opened and beckoned us to pass. Had they expected a specific person to come here? The 'hero who prevented me from being bound' – that could not be the Dragonborn, as she had not been with us in the cave. In Wolfskull Cave, the blueish light which had indicated the summoning process had gone out as soon as I had killed the person who had been in charge, so maybe the short speech had been directed at me. I had no intention to die, though.

We proceeded carefully and got onto a small balcony overlooking a medium sized hall below. When scanning the room I noticed several niches, and most of them did not appear to be empty. In addition, there was a large pile of bones in a corner. This smelled, both literally and figuratively, and I did not need to be a rocket scientist to predict that an attack was imminent as soon as we stepped down the stairs. Fiona and I cast 'Oakflesh' on ourselves, I conjured Spirit and sent the three saber cats down, and Fiona and Antonius got their bows ready; the rest of us proceeded downstairs with drawn weapons and prepared for a fight.

When I was about half way down, a small number of skeletons rose from the pile of bones, while two draugr stepped out of their niches. We split our forces accordingly and attacked. In the middle of the fighting, with the skeletons easily disposed, a coffin in a niche we had missed to notice opened and another person came out. Judged by looks and the spell this one cast right away at me, this was obviously a vampire, and not a weak one either. I felt getting weaker and had to retreat for the moment, but the vampire followed me. Fortunately Rayya had noticed my predicament and attacked the vampire from the side; he had to defend himself and stopped the spell against me, so that I got time to swallow a potion of healing. Now the Redguard was in trouble, but Fiona and Antonius directed their next arrows to the vampire and I blasted my flames at him, too. When the vampire had his back to me, I swung my fire enchanted glass battleaxe into his body with full power and retreated again. There was a loud roar, but the vampire was not dead yet. He turned around, a little bit slower this time, and raised his hands in my direction once more, but I was having none of that now and blasted more flames at him, exhausting my tiny pool of magicka. There was another roar, and I got the opportunity for another attack with my axe. That was still not enough, but suddenly a small hand pushed into me, and I saw the Dragonborn standing next to me. I allowed myself to be pushed to the side, and when the vampire was ready to attack again, he found himself facing the Dragonborn and got her 'FUS RO' directly in his face from about two meters distance. The force threw him back against a pillar, and when he slowly started to rise again, I attacked with my axe for the third time and managed to separate the vampire's head from the body entirely. I was a little bit surprised that this actually worked, but I suspected that the fire enchantment on the axe helped a lot; this had truly been a very helpful gift from Jarl Balgruuf.

Meanwhile, the others had finished off the remaining enemies and we got time to rest and recover. Fiona suddenly said:

"We completely forgot about our new spell, didn't we?"

"You are right" I replied. "However, I don't think that it would have worked against that super strong vampire anyway. I bet that there are more draugr ahead, though."

And there were. After some more passages and stairs we came into a larger room which was partially filled with water, and three draugr waited for us right at the walls of the aisle we used to get forward. When they started to move, Fiona cast the 'Turn Undead' spell, and the reaction was immediate – two of the draugr turned around and fled. The third one, though, turned towards us and attacked with a shout:

'ZUN HAAL VIIK!'

I did not think that I had heard this one before, but the effect was obvious: All of us, at least those in the front row, suddenly got disarmed; our weapons forced themselves out of our hands and dropped to the ground. Janina had just prepared her two scimitars and was now forced to confront the ugly undead face to face without them. She reacted quickly, though, and in a move which was almost too quick to observe, she somehow managed to halfway run up a stone pillar, push herself off, turn around in mid air and hit the draugr head full force with both feet. Pushing herself off again, she jumped back to the ground next to her scimitars, picking them up again in fluid motion. She had mentioned something about being good in unarmed combat before, if I recalled correctly, and this was apparently an understatement. Her move reminded me of similar moves I had seen in the old TV series 'Xena, the warrior princess', and I was duly impressed.

The draugr staggered back, and Antonius, who had recovered his bow from the ground, now shot arrows. The ugly undead had something more to offer, though, and it conjured a Frost Atronach right in front of us. That was the perfect target for my flames spell and my fire enchanted axe, and while the others continued to harass the draugr, Rayya and I got to work on the atronach. The elemental was big, but slow, and with a little bit of agility it was not too hard to evade its attacks.

While we were busy here, the two other draugr, those which had fled before, came back, but Fiona drove them back by casting 'Turn Undead' a second time. When the powerful draugr had disarmed some of us once again, Fiona faced the warrior and blasted it against the wall with 'FUS RO'. Janina followed up and whirled her two scimitars around, hitting the draugr again and again, until it was finally dead. Had that been something like a 'Draugr Deathlord' or so?

Now, when the other two draugr returned once more, Janina and Rayya got them and disposed of them easily. Hanni and Nanni had, for the entire fighting, stayed next to me, and they seemed to be reluctant to attack undead, or at least the more powerful ones. They probably realized that they were too young and small to help much in those fights.

When we looked around, Antonius found a chest to loot, but when he opened it, he got hit by some of the poison darts coming down on him; he had missed to notice the booby-trap. Our combined healing efforts saved him, but now we had to rest for some time, allowing him to recover. That was perfect from my point of view, as I needed some time to calm my nerves. Fighting outside in daylight was one thing, but in here, in the catacombs, and against undead as well, gave me the creeps. Yes, I had been in Bleak Falls Barrow, but somehow the atmosphere in here was different and somehow more scary. While some of my companions checked the bodies on the ground for valuable loot, I decided to mention that:

"Is it just me or is the environment down here kind of creepy?"

"No, it's not just you; I feel that as well, but didn't want to mention it" Antonius admitted.

Janina and Rayya kept a straight face, but Fiona actually grinned:

"Yes, I understand your point, but I actually like it. I feel like I am in a kind of zombie apocalypse, and it's kind of fun. It's just like a good horror movie, and I used to love those!"

She loved horror movies? Well, good for her, but I did not. Once, in my late teen years, I had made a mistake and watched the first 'Alien' movie, and I had had bad dreams for weeks afterwards. I guess that she was different, but I recalled how she had quickly adapted already in Bleak Falls Barrow, when she had been exposed to draugr and such for the first time.

About half an hour later we continued our exploration. This time I conjured Spirit, the saber cat cub familiar, and had her go first. This turned out to be a wise decision, as she triggered a number of traps and runes we might have otherwise missed. Some more passages and traps later we entered a room with a row of three levers, and the only other exit was blocked by a gate. There were no puzzle pillars, though, and no hints which lever to use first. After some debating I stepped forward, cast 'Oakflesh' on me just in case, and switched the first lever. Some noise was heard, like scratching on rock, but no change was visible, although the noise continued. I flipped the second one, and more noise was added. When I finally also moved the final lever, the gate started to rotate, and it briefly opened to allow viewing ahead, we could see that there was a row of three revolving doors. Some more experimenting proved that each door was controlled by one of the levers, and it did not take me very long to have all of the three doors aligned in an open position.

We managed to get through that section, and when we got into the next larger room, we saw a throne with a draugr on it, not moving for now at least, and some person stepping forward towards us, saying:

"You've come far, mortals. No doubt you seek to enter Potema՚s Sanctum. I can see to that. We'll need plenty of fresh corpses to rebuild her army, you see."

When the words were spoken, the attacks commenced, and the person who had spoken turned out to be a vampire. Once more I was targeted by some 'Drain Health' spell, and from the corner of my eyes I saw the draugr rising from its throne and attacking as well. For now, I managed to break the spell by stepping behind a pillar, and while the vampire searched for me, I grabbed my crossbow and fired. The vampire was apparently not the smartest one; while it slowly moved to the side, I managed to hit with three more bolts, and when Janina distracted the undead with her scimitars, I dropped my crossbow and swung my axe into the vampire. That was good, but not enough to finish it off, and I had to jump back. Once more I was hit by 'Drain Health', but while our housecarls got the draugr under control, Fiona shouted 'FUS RO' directly into the vampire from about two meters away, and when I followed up with my axe again, I managed to separate head from body. I breathed deeply, being weakened by the health draining effect, but I saw that our brave housecarls were just done with the draugr. When we had all recovered, we carefully searched the room and the two bodies, and we found that the vampire had a key on it. There was only one way forward, through a short passage and a locked gate, and the key opened that one.

We entered a large burial chamber with a number of non moving draugr, and for now we sneaked past them to the next room. This one, though, had another vampire in it, and we got attacked right away. Like the last one, his first attack was directed at me, but by now my companions knew what to do. The mighty vampire was hit from multiple sources, and it failed to survive the battering for long. Just before falling to the ground, though, he somehow managed to activate the draugr in the burial chamber. Fiona cast 'Turn Undead' once more, which made most of them flee for now, but two of them turned out to be real powerful ones. One shouted 'ZUN HAAL VIIK!', disarming us, and the other blasted 'FUS RO DAH!', hitting Fiona and Janina almost full force, but fortunately from some distance. Both of them were thrown back and landed on a pile of bones, out of the action for now and probably injured. Now I summoned Spirit, and Hanni and Nanni followed on one side, attacking the undead who had used the disarming shout. Draugr were not the most nimble enemies, and the three saber cat cubs got this one busy, whereas the two housecarls drove the other undead back. That allowed me to get over to our two unconscious ladies and start my healing.

Meanwhile, the first draugr shouted again, but the disarming shout had, of course, no effect on the three saber cats. Apparently, with Spirit at their side and leading them, Hanni and Nanni were getting more courageous and even dared to attack draugr now, which was appreciated. The draugr was too dumb to realize that his shout failed, and it tried once more. Rayya and Antoninus had managed to defeat their draugr, and they now also finished off the other one. Fiona and Janina both opened their eyes again, and they got a healing potion each. Fiona admitted:

"I feel like almost each single bone in my body is broken. Why am I not dead?"

"I think that I manged to cast healing on you just in time, and the potion also helped."

Each of the ladies took three healing potions and one for stamina plus half an hour of rest before they declared that they were ready to proceed; fortunately their injuries had not been critical. I was also very glad that I had made sure to stock up my potion supply. At this point the disembodied spoke again:

"Not much further. Come, little thing. Serve me in death."

We looked at each other, but moved on. We came across a room with many unmoving draugr and skeletons on the floor, and between all of them together, they had quite some loot on them, also including a number of soul gems. We did not take most of the weapons, of course, as our carrying capacity was limited, but we should have removed the weapons from the bodies at least. When we had almost passed the room, some of the undead rose from the ground and had us surrounded. This time, though, they seemed to be all of a lower level, mostly just skeletons, and our combined efforts, with help from the saber cats, helped us to get the situation under control quickly.

Just before getting into the next room we heard the strange voice again:

"You've come far, mortals, but can you stand against my inner council? Let's see!"

All of a sudden Antonius suggested:

"Ladies, why don't you get back to the previous room and wait for a few minutes before we proceed?"

I was not sure if we needed that break, but maybe he was right. But why only the ladies? I quickly learned about that; as soon as the females had left, my housecarl pulled his pants partially down and urinated right on the various bones in the room. He noticed my big eyes and asked:

"What? Have you seen a proper outhouse down here? Also, if we really encounter Potema herself in the next section, I'd rather not wet my pants."

He had a point here, and a few seconds later I did as he did, too. I had no idea what kind of restroom replacement the ladies used in ruins, but I was way too shy to ask.

When we were all together again and ready to move on, I cast 'Oakflesh' on myself, and Fiona did the same. When we opened the door and stepped through, we found ourselves in another large room with a throne, and a blueish light started to swirl around, similar to the light we had seen in Wolfskull cave. The light was not just for decoration, though, and when it touched me for the first time, I felt weakened and slowed down. I stepped back to the previous room, and the light did not follow. However, a number of draugr woke up and rose, so that I suggested quickly:

"Retreat and attack from the distance!"

Fiona and Antoninus got their bows out and I readied my crossbow, and when the first draugr appeared in the door, it got hit by two arrows and one bolt at the same time, staggering it. Janina had placed herself to the side, and she swung her scimitars quickly, decapitating the undead. We were able to repeat this with a few more draugr, until the next one turned out to be a more powerful one. It got barely staggered and also managed to defend itself against Janina՚s weapons, but failed to survive Fiona's 'FUS RO' shout. We kept on fighting like this, and I almost suspected that Potema՚s supply of undead might be unlimited. After a seemingly almost endless number of minutes, though, no more draugr appeared, bu there was the disembodied voice again:

"Don't applaud yourself too soon, worms!"

Cautiously I stepped into the next room, and there was a ghost rising from the throne, with the blueish light focused around it. Not only that, but a couple of fire atronachs suddenly appeared, so that we needed to be careful. I tried to damage the ghost with bolts, but it appeared that the bolts did not cause any damage at all. The situation started to change when I tried to attack with flames, and once I hit the ghost with my enchanted axe for the first time, I heard some screeching. While my companions dealt with the atronachs and a few draugr which had been resurrected, my saber cat cubs and I focused on the ghost. I started to swallow magicka potions and continued my flames on it as much as I could while repeatedly swinging the fire enchanted axe through the ghost's body. The ghost was able to cast a shock spell, and when this hit me for the first time, I was almost unable to continue fighting. Only the fierce attacks of my saber cat cubs prevented me from being consumed by the ghost. Eventually, though, specifically when Antonius came to help, our combined efforts managed to subdue the ghost, and the erie light flickered out.

We looked around to make sure we had not missed any enemy, and then, of course, it was also time for a break and some resting. None of us had escaped completely unscathed, but fortunately we had managed to avoid critical injuries at least, and a few healing potions got all of us back to normal quite soon.

There was not much left to do. Potema՚s skull was on the throne, and I picked it up. We found some more loot, and the combined loot from the catacombs alone would probably amount to more than one thousand septims for each of us. For some time we wondered if we were supposed to follow the same way back, but, like many other tombs and ruins, the place did have a back exit. A few more draugr guarded it, but we managed to defeat those as well, and when we got through, we were suddenly on a small rock platform outside of Solitude, which turned out to be a mountain ledge north of the city. How we had managed to get to that elevation while mostly going down in the catacombs was unclear, but there was probably some magic involved.

We – Janina, Fiona, myself and our two housecarls, plus my two saber cat cubs – had managed to defeat Potema in the catacombs and retrieve her skull, and we had found the back exit, which had mysteriously delivered us to a ledge in the hills around Solitude. We had apparently spent a few hours in there, and the sun indicated that it was now mid afternoon. So, rather than getting down right away, we breathed the brisk and fresh mountain air and got some food from our backpacks. I did not have milk with me this time, but Hanni and Nanni were fine with water as well, which they lapped from a few puddles in rock depressions around us; I shared my meat supply with them. My two cubs rested their heads on my lap, and Antonius had a comment ready:

"I wonder if they're still going to do that when they are fully grown. If they do, you'd be fully immobilized, I should guess."

Janina laughed and replied:

"I could help, and we could have some nice wrestling matches with them."

"Yep, you'd be immobilized in no time as well. You know how large and heavy those saber cats can get?"

Janina shook her head and responded:

"We don't have those where I come from. Like mountain lions in Cyrodiil, I guess?"

Antonius laughed and corrected her:

"Not the proper comparison, not at all."

Fiona now got into the conversation as well:

"Judged by the adult saber cat which probably was the cubs' mother, I should think that they have barely reached a third of their full size yet, if even that."

Janina՚s eyes got big, and I added:

"Janina, snowy saber cats are, maybe together with snow bears, the largest and most dangerous predators in Skyrim. When standing on their hind legs, they will be taller than me, and they're going to have maybe three times my weight or more. There's no way one of us could win a wrestling match against one of them once they're fully grown."

"But, isn't it going to be dangerous to have them around later?"

"Maybe so, but they will still know me as their best friend, and Kynareth is going to help, too. I have become her champion, and she seems to approve of me taking care of the cubs. Thus, I am not concerned, and those two wonderful girls are to stay my trusted companions even once they are fully grown up."

I tried to radiate confidence I did not fully have; they were dangerous predators, after all, but I somehow believed in Kynareth guiding my hand. Fiona was clearly not convinced, and knowing part of her past, I understood. In a subdued voice she reminded me:

"You know what happened with the white tigers the two mages in Las Vegas, Siegfried and Roy, had?"

I recalled indeed that there had been an accident years ago, and one of the mages had been severely injured by one of their 'pets'. Yes, I had thought about that, too, but I hoped that this here was different, and so I just nodded. Janina, though, seemed to like the saber cat cubs:

"You know, I almost envy you. I have yet to find a companion I can fully trust, and those two – Hanni and Nanni – are just so cute. I wish I could see them growing up."

"If you stick around me, that can be arranged."

She looked directly in my eyes when I had said this, but I failed to interpret what her look was supposed to say. When she mentioned that she did not have a trustworthy companion, did that imply that she did not have a lover or husband waiting for her? I should better stop thinking in those directions; that was none of my business after all.

Now, with all of the talking, we had sufficiently rested, and we tried to find a way down from our mountain ledge. There was one, but the path was not suited at all for those afraid of heights. Hanni and Nanni did not have any problems, but both Fiona and Rayya needed assistance. I guided Fiona, whereas Antonius helped Rayya. When we were almost down to the road, I heard a loud slapping noise, and when I turned around I saw one of Antonius' cheeks becoming red.

"What happened?"

"I … ahm …"

"He was supposed to help me, but he grabbed my butt a little too hard and too much" Rayya explained without hesitation.

I barely managed to suppress laughing, and I suspected that some of the others had the same problem. Fortunately I came up with a distraction:

"So, does anybody know where we are now?"

None of us really did, but when Fiona pointed out a lighthouse, we agreed that this could only be the Solitude Lighthouse; thus, if we followed the road to our right and south, we should be back in the city within an hour or two.

[Author's Notes: I already mentioned that earlier – I imagine an adult snowy saber cat to be like the extinct 'Smilodon populator', with a shoulder height of about 120cm and a weight of about 400kg; this is significantly larger and heavier than a mountain lion.]