Chapter 19: Chasing Echoes

A disturbed night made for an even grumpier Sithia in the morning. She was rather monosyllabic until she got her temper under control, maybe because she didn't want to inflict it on Serana if she could help it.

"Map," Sithia said, holding out her hand for her enchanted map, clearly not in the mood to flirt this time.

Serana handed it over and they followed the route written in blood to where they found a boat pulled up onto the shore. She could see Castle Volkihar looming in the distance across the Sea of Ghosts.

"See?" Sithia handed the map back, a triumphant gleam in her eyes.

"Yes, yes, you were right, the enchantment somehow knew about this boat. Get in and I'll push it into the water."

Sithia got in and Serana dropped her pack in, her boots digging into the mud of the shore as she shoved the boat down and into the sea. She jumped in herself once she was sure the boat wasn't going to be pushed back too far by the waves. They got the oars into position and Serana enspelled them to send the boat on a cautious wide arc to the northern side of the island: where the way into the castle undercroft was. She hoped her paranoid father hadn't sealed it away, or it would be a lot harder for them to reach the courtyard.

Finding the boat must have helped Sithia get a grip on her temper, as she finally spoke more than a single word at a time: "Let's hope your father and his cronies sleep like good little vampires while the sun is up."

"Hopefully."

As the boat took them out north west into the Sea of Ghosts, Sithia sat up straighter and looked around. "Um, Serana, isn't the island that way?" She pointed to the dark shadow of the castle on the horizon.

"It is, but I want to avoid the main entrance to the castle. Father may have activated the gargoyles on the bridge, so it's best we keep our distance."

"Those things are alive? I knew it," Sithia muttered darkly.

"I'm surprised he kept them, to be honest. Mother made them."

"Does he ever venture outside his precious castle?"

"That might explain why he didn't get rid of them. He's always seen it as beneath him to do his own dirty work. It's why he sends his underlings out on errands instead."

The sun was high in the sky by the time they reached the old dock in the northern inlet. Serana took over steering to avoid bumping into a shipwreck filling most of the dock, its broken mast still poking up above the water. Sithia jumped out of the boat and almost fell flat on her face, only just catching herself with a hand and a muttered curse. The stone underfoot was slippery with a thin scattering of snow melting in the sunlight.

Serana jumped out of the boat, landing with catlike grace courtesy of her vampirism. She helped Sithia up. "Are you all right?"

A brief burst of healing magic belied Sithia's words: "I'm fine."

"You mean you are now."

"I meant what I said."

"You had to heal yourself. That's the definition of not all right to me."

"You worry too much. It was just a bruise or two. I'm fine. Really. How about you turn those keen vampiric senses of yours from me to anything that could be keeping watch?"

Serana stifled a frustrated hiss as she drew her hood closer around her head. "Sithia, we're in direct sunlight. They're no keener than yours. If anything, you can see more than I can."

"Ah. Well, then." Sithia walked forward until she stood in the shadow of the castle and beckoned Serana over. Serana retrieved the pack from the boat and joined her in the relative relief of the shade.

"Better?"

"A bit. My head aches a bit less at least. It'll be good to get inside." Serana looked up at the harsh angles of the stonework looming over them. "Castle looks so big from down here. I mean, it is big, but, well, even bigger."

"It is. Any inhabitants around this bit?"

Serana concentrated, eyes slipping closed as she focused on what her other senses could tell her, especially that of her necromancy. The only things alive in her father's domain were thralls and cattle, and any heartbeats would call out to her vampiric hearing. She heard nothing except sluggish heartbeats high above. Birds. Undead birds. Hopefully not ones her father or his minions used as spies. Still, any snooping vampires would have to be awake; unlikely at this time of day.

Suddenly she heard something else, something distinctive. The creak of dry bone, coupled with sparks of necromantic magic in the shadows. So her father did have the undercroft's entrance guarded, if by second rate skeletal guards. Both stupid and fragile. A single hit from a spell or sword would deal with them easily.

"Skeletons," she murmured to Sithia, and readied an Ice Spike. She spotted one of the four she'd felt and sent it scattering across the flagstones with a well placed strike.

"Leave some for me!" Sithia drew Dragonbane and sprinted forwards. She almost slipped again on the wet stone underfoot.

Serana steadied her with one hand and sent another shard of ice into another skeleton. "The last two are all yours. There's one in that little passageway just up ahead, and the other is upstairs and behind where we are now."

"Thanks." Sithia ran on a little more carefully. Clattering bones heralded the last two skeletons collapsing.

Serana headed upstairs to join Sithia.

"I wish they were sturdier," Sithia grumbled, scowling down at the nearest collapsed skeleton.

Serana nudged the pile of the bones, unearthing a battered bow. "Be careful what you wish for: this one was an archer. We wouldn't want them to have time to hit us!"

"Hmph. You're right. Better that they almost collapse with a stiff breeze." Sithia crouched down to inspect the remains for anything useful, straightening with her gauntlets covered with fragments of bone. "At least they're good for bonemeal. There should be a pouch with some in my pack. Get it for me, please? I don't want bits of bone scattered on everything else in there."

Serana retrieved the pouch and handed it over, biting back a comment about thinking ahead next time. It wasn't as if it came naturally to her impulsive Dragonborn after all…

Sithia dusted off her hands into the pouch and handed it back. She looked around, gesturing at the wrecked ship. "Why does the castle have two docks?"

"Different docks for different uses. This was where boats would bring supplies to the castle when it was under previous ownership. Once we moved in it never got used, along with the rest of the undercroft. We'll need to watch our steps inside, if Father has any sense he won't have just skeletons down here."

Sithia eyed the scattered bones left by the skeletal guards. "Are skeletons what happens to thralls when they die?"

"Maybe? It's certainly possible, but they might come from other remains." Serana didn't really care to think about where they came from, especially when her father was responsible. He was capable of a lot, and very little of it good.

"I guess I don't want to know. Let's see what's in there." Sithia nodded at the only doorway unblocked by rubble.

"Let's." Serana lowered her voice, in preparation for how quiet they'd need to be inside. She opened the door and winced when the hinges creaked horribly. It was a wonder it opened at all judging by the tortured screech.

Sithia sighed. "Hopefully nothing drawn by that racket."

Serana paused for a moment, listening carefully. "I don't hear anything."

They stepped inside. Serana considered closing the door behind them but tormenting the hinges some more would only double the risk they'd be overheard. It smelled musty but not too damp. Candles lit their way, which made Serana wonder aloud if the undercroft was actually inhabited now.

Sithia pulled her mask and cowl down, now that she was out of the biting wind. "Maybe? But then ancient Nordic ruins are sometimes lit like this. It always makes me wonder if draugr light the candles. In this case maybe skeletons?"

"Certainly not skeevers, yet that's what I hear just up ahead."

Serana could make out its rapid heartbeat and occasional squeaks. It didn't even notice them before Serana exterminated the overgrown rat with a shard of ice. Anything beyond the closed doors ahead hopefully wouldn't hear them… and with any luck those doors wouldn't creak when opened. Serana reached to push one of the doors open.

"Wait." Sithia reached into the pack on Serana's back, rummaging around.

"What is it?"

Sithia darted between Serana and the door, a pouch in her hands. She squeezed something out of it onto the hinges. "I remembered I have some troll fat."

"Will it really work like that?"

Sithia pushed the door open. It swung open smoothly and silently.

"We don't know for sure that the hinges even needed it."

"They were rusty. They would've screamed like that door back there."

"Maybe. There's certainly enough moisture in the air in the room ahead to make anything rust - it's the old water cistern. On some days, this would smell just…" Serana shuddered. "Be glad you weren't here then." Now it just smelled like the stagnant water in the middle of the room.

"Why did you come down here at all back then if it smelled so bad?"

Serana shrugged. "I held my breath. Anyway, I liked to explore. My parents almost never let me off the island, so yeah, I poked around down here a lot. It was a little… quieter… back then. Guess a little vampire girl was enough to scare off the rats." She glanced back at the dead skeever.

"Little? What does that make me, tiny?"

"I think you'd kick me in the shin if I called you that."

Sithia bared her teeth in a savage grin. "Definitely if you patted my head at the same time."

"Noted. No, you're not tiny. That's what Delphine is. You're shorter than I am, but I don't know… average height for Imperials? I haven't met many."

"I'm tall for an Imperial. And as far as I can tell you're not little for a Nord."

"I'm not. It was just a figure of speech. My parents certainly treated me like I was a little girl though: someone to be kept safe. And away from anyone unsuitable. Any companions of mine never met their standards for long."

Sithia paused. She reached over and squeezed Serana's hand. "That sounds lonely."

Serana squeezed back. "It was. But I got used to it."

"Your mother didn't allow you any more freedom than your father?"

"She was very protective, especially after my incident with stamina potion abuse."

"That wouldn't have been an issue after you became vampires, though. Not as if you can be poisoned."

"No, but it did mean she didn't trust my judgement for a long time. We still got along despite that, though, before my father became obsessed with the prophecy. Mother and I spent quite a bit of time together back then. She was very fond of her alchemical garden in the castle courtyard. She taught me quite a bit about cultivating quality reagents." Serana sighed. "We were like the best of friends. I would never hesitate to share anything with her."

"But that changed?"

Serana nodded glumly. "It was very sudden. It was almost like one day we were a normal family, and then the next I didn't know who they were. I'd try to visit my mother in the garden, and she'd quickly shoo me away saying she was much too busy."

"Busy with what?"

"I'm hoping it's a clue that will tell us where she went."

"Hopefully. Or this really is a wild goose chase."

"And one taking us far too close to my father. If he finds us…" Serana shivered.

"Things clearly weren't as good with your father, even back when you were a 'normal' family."

"Normal was perhaps not the best word to use, although I'm sure plenty of noble fathers are distant with their children. We weren't terribly close, but I still love him." Serana shook her head sadly and sighed again. Loving him was only going to lead to pain in the end with what they'd have to do to stop him. "We should've found him a hobby. Maybe then he wouldn't have become obsessed with the prophecy, and my family wouldn't have been torn apart."

Then again, if it hadn't then she probably wouldn't have met Sithia. If her family hadn't been torn asunder then there would have been no meeting in Dimhollow.

Sithia stroked her thumb along the back of Serana's hand. It was a pity she was wearing her gauntlets, the thrum of enchanted leather just wasn't the same as the tingle Serana got from Sithia's skin. "I gather most people do love their parents. Even if those parents don't really deserve it."

Serana squeezed Sithia's hand again, conscious that she wasn't the only one here with parental issues. "I remember you saying your mother didn't care about you. You must have reason to think so."

"Think? I know she didn't. But that's fine." Sithia's lip curled. "I didn't care about her either. Rasha is the one who raised me, she was only my mother in blood and name. She was the Listener, and I respected her as that, but there was no love lost between us."

"I'm sorry. You deserved better. What about your father?"

"I think I told you before that Rasha was the closest thing I had to that. Not that he saw me as a daughter. I don't even know who my real father was. I don't want to know either, as chances are he was a client or worse, a victim of my mother's."

"Not her husband?"

Sithia laughed bitterly. "No. She never married. That's right, I'm a bastard. Besides, even if I did want to know who my father was, that knowledge died with my mother."

"I'm sorry."

"Not your fault. That's far too many apologies from you for that sort of thing already."

Serana shrugged. "I'm still sorry. I wish fate had been kinder to you."

"Likewise."

Serana felt tears prick at her eyes. The sheer amount of sympathy in Sithia's voice, and in those grey eyes was too much. Serana looked away and blinked the tears back before she could alarm Sithia with tears of blood.

She cleared her throat. "Thanks. This is all very touching, but…" Serana latched on to the first question she could think of: "My curiosity is nagging at me. What is a Listener?"

"Was. My mother was the last. The leader of the Dark Brotherhood, chosen by the Night Mother, wife of Sithis. Only the Listener could hear the Night Mother's commands and so receive the contracts offered during the Black Sacrament."

"I remember reading about that in a book you have in Whiterun. The Night Mother is the sweet mother in it?"

Sithia nodded. "The Listener would send a Speaker to clients who performed the Black Sacrament. Only now there is no Listener as far as I know. I suppose it's possible that the Night Mother picked another after my mother's death, but… unlikely. Rasha kept me separate from his Sanctuary, but I did know of the troubles the Dark Brotherhood ran into. That it was dying. Rasha's was the only Sanctuary left in Cyrodiil, and there was only one other he knew of that still survived, here in Skyrim."

"Rasha was your Speaker?"

"Yes."

"What exactly was a Speaker apart from the one sent to see clients? And what's a Sanctuary?"

"A Speaker led a Sanctuary, a secret location for a local group of Dark Brotherhood assassins to live together and receive their contracts. I was kept apart from Rasha's other subordinates as he felt it safer that way."

"In case you fell into the wrong hands?"

Sithia flinched. "I think it was more to do with making sure I'd be loyal to him and only him. No ties of friendship to others I might be called upon to kill if they ever plotted against him. I thought for a long time that I was the one who ultimately betrayed him to the Thalmor. I went looking for his body after I was rescued, after I'd recovered." She looked away, her face haunted. "I found him in his house. He'd been skinned. Hopefully not alive."

Serana slipped her hand from Sithia's to wrap her arms around her. "That's terrible. I'm—"

She stiffened. What was that? Soft clicking. A low growl. Serana looked up and across the cistern. A skeletally thin black dog stalked towards them, claws clicking against the flagstones. A death hound, its sluggish heartbeat having escaped Serana's notice until now.

Sithia looked up. "What is it? Oh, one of those undead dogs. And look, it has a friend." She drew her sword.

Another death hound emerged from behind a pile of bones, hot on the heels of the first.

Serana's eyes narrowed as she honed in on the mental leash on the dogs. Perhaps she could usurp it… but no. They weren't under the control of a Volkihar. It would simply take too long to get them to accept her as their mistress. She was too unfamiliar. Oh well. That was just too bad. Poor dogs. They hadn't asked to be raised from the dead. All that could be done now was to return them to it.

One of the dogs fell under Sithia's sword, the other to a burst of lightning from Serana. Quick clean deaths. As the bodies didn't collapse into ash, Serana resurrected one, mostly out of habit, but it might come in useful to turn against its former master should he be down here. That it wasn't a Volkihar was strange. Perhaps a lowly hanger on of the court with merely ordinary vampirism, hoping to be granted the true power of Volkihar blood?

Serana sniffed. She couldn't smell anything beyond stagnant water and now damp dog from the death hounds. Wait. On the hounds. A hint of something. Their master? She knelt beside the resurrected one and gave another sniff.

"I thought you didn't like dogs?" Sithia chuckled. "Change your mind? Getting to know your new pet?"

"Hardly. My father keeps death hounds, but these aren't his. They smell of another. Faintly." Serana frowned. "It's difficult to tell under the overall wet dog stench."

"One of his minions? Will this vampire be down here with them?"

"If it is, it's so far down the hierarchy of the court that it's not a Volkihar by blood."

"Not a danger to us, then."

"I wouldn't think so, but we should still be cautious. Apart from anything else, unless the possible vampire has a good stock of bottled blood down here, it could be feral. I can't smell anything alive down here except you."

"Void take feral vampires." Sithia readied her sword. "Although I'm not sure I can tell the difference between blooded vampires and ferals. They all go for my throat as if they've never fed."

"You are that tasty." Serana licked her lips. If only it felt safe down here… She could never get enough of direct feeding from her delicious Dragonborn. She eyed Sithia's neck longingly.

Another growl tore her eyes away and Serana cursed herself for letting herself get distracted merely thinking about feeding. This was not the time or the place! Right after she said they should be cautious too! She needed to practice what she preached.

Unsurprisingly it was another death hound. The lowly vampire was with it, a crazed light in those glowing eyes. As she suspected, a feral. Serana had no time to register anything else as it sprinted for them. It lunged at Sithia, fangs bared. The tastiest mortal it could ever have smelled.

'No! Mine.'

The incoherent snarl came straight from Serana's inner monster. The shard of ice piercing the ravenous wretch's throat came from the rest of Serana. The feral vampire dropped dead at Sithia's feet before it could touch her.

"Um. Thanks. I could've beheaded it myself though." Sithia sheathed her sword, leaving it loose enough that it could quickly come free again should need arise.

"I know. That was mostly instinctive." Serana pointedly didn't apologise. As far as she was concerned, she had nothing to be sorry for.

"I guess rivalry over dinner comes naturally to vampires."

"You know you're more than just a meal to me."

Sithia nodded. "I think you've proven by now that it's not just my blood you want." She crouched beside the body. Wearing rags, it was a bald female bosmer. The pitiful wretch had probably torn her own hair out in the consuming thirst that overwhelmed her sanity. Sithia searched the pitiful remains, coming up with a scrap of paper.

"What's it say?"

Sithia squinted at the paper. "Rantings of an outcast. Seems she was deemed unworthy of being part of your father's court. She's been plotting her revenge by taking control of the death hounds."

"As if death hounds would be much of a threat to any of the court, let alone my father." Serana shook her head. "I suppose it's too much to expect a feral to come up with better. Too thirsty to think clearly."

"At least that's not something you ever need to worry about, right?"

"I don't get feral, but that's because a Daughter of Coldharbour can't get thirstier. I'm always thirsty."

Sithia shot her a sidelong look. "Well that's reassuring," she muttered. "At least you clearly have more control than this one had." She nudged the dead vampire with her foot.

"I should hope so. I'm used to it. Come on, the way in should be this way." Serana led the way deeper into the undercroft, only to be drawn up short by a raised drawbridge blocking their way. "Oh, right. Father had this put in when he got more paranoid. Two drawbridges. There should be a lever somewhere around here to open the first, and another further in to make the second drop."

"Or I could Shout them down."

"No! We don't want to wake up the lord of the castle, remember?"

Sithia let her shoulders fall, the breath she'd inhaled in readiness to Shout coming out in a harmless sigh. "You have a point."

They found the lever where the feral vampire had been living, near its coffin. Serana shuddered at the sight of it. She could never understand how anyone could bear being inside such things at all, let alone sleep in them.

Sithia tugged at the lever. It seemed to be a little stiff, presumably because it hadn't been used in ages. Mortal strength was sufficient to move it without the addition of troll fat, and they heard the drawbridge fall into place.

One down, one to go. And then… Serana smiled. "I can't wait to see the courtyard again."

"It might not be the same as you remember," Sithia said, her voice unusually gentle. "It's been a long time, and I doubt your father took care of something your mother loved."

Happy memories faded away with the touch of reality. Sithia was right. It wouldn't be the same, and it might be better if Serana didn't get her hopes up. "I still want to see it. Come on."

"No argument from me, it sounds like we need to see what if your mother was getting up to anything there."

They returned to the drawbridge and crept cautiously forward. It seemed sturdy enough underfoot.

"Take a left up here. If we follow that path around, we can find the other switch. I think."

Sithia did so, only to come to sudden stop. Serana almost walked into her. Not a good thing when there was a spiked floor beneath the platform they stood on.

"Ugh. Something's rotting." Sithia pulled her mask back up.

Serana took a cautious sniff. Sithia was right. A hint of the sickly sweetness of rotting flesh from the passage they needed to follow. Serana didn't want to know where it was coming from but suspected they'd soon find out.

A telltale creak of bone on bone alerted Serana to two skeletons lurking in the shadows. She decided to let Sithia deal with them, tipping her off as to their locations, and warned her about a dangling spike trap nearby.

There was something else lurking around, though. Serana could hear it. Something she'd heard in the Rift, a sort of bubbling breathing. Skeletons dealt with, Sithia looked around, head angling towards the sound. Somewhere within mortal earshot, a giant frostbite spider lurked.

"Void take it. I bet it's right where we need to go."

"Probably. Somewhere up there. I think you may be right, that it's where the second switch is."

Sithia very reluctantly followed the passageway into a room awash with a shallow pool of water. Bloodstained water with piles of fresh bones standing in it. Very fresh bone with small bits of flesh still attached, oozing the blood. Sithia brought her hand up to her facemask, stifling a cough. Serana held her breath, well aware this was where the stench came from.

They both dodged aside as something clanged above them and a bloodied ribcage plummeted down. Another clank heralded a trapdoor far above closing. That told Serana all she needed to know and far more than she wanted to. The bones in here were the remains of human cattle, torn apart, mostly picked clean of flesh, and dumped from the living quarters into the undercroft. Blood dripped down from the disposal shaft.

Serana made sure Sithia saw a finger raised to her own lips. They needed to keep quiet in this chamber in case anyone in the castle above heard them through the shaft. Sithia nodded and moved on, picking her way carefully through the midden. The muffle enchantment on her boots wouldn't extend to anything she accidentally kicked after all, only to things she directly touched; an avalanche of bones wouldn't stay silent for long.

They got through the bone pile with only a minor rattle of bone that hopefully didn't go far up the shaft above. Stone stairs led up into more cramped passages. Serana went ahead through these, as they were dimly lit. She managed to stop Sithia from walking into the thick cobwebs blocking their way. Serana squinted through them, spotting the hulking shadow of the giant spider lurking beyond.

"How about I take care of this?" Serana whispered to Sithia.

"I'm fine with keeping my distance. Thanks."

The spider showed no signs of hearing them above its own breathing, but of course skittered closer when Serana broke through the webs. A few ice spikes to the eyes and brain behind them dealt with it, and it collapsed.

Serana kicked the massive body aside and walked past it to the switch. She tripped it, and heard the drawbridge lower to join its twin. She returned to Sithia, and took her hand, squeezing it gently. That brought Sithia's attention back from where it had been transfixed by the remains of the spider's meal: a human skull caught in a thick web.

Serana smiled encouragingly. "Come on. We're almost through to the courtyard."

They backtracked to the room with the drawbridges and crossed to the flight of steps beyond, in a narrow passageway winding up and out to the courtyard. Serana took the lead again, pushing open the door at the end. In her eagerness she barely managed to keep it from banging open.

Serana leapt up the steps and out into the courtyard, her steps faltering as her fond memory of the beauty faded into the bleak reality.

"Oh no…"

The courtyard lay in ruins; rubble strewn around, the trees and bushes all dead. The only sign of life was moss covering the ground and hanging from the trees. The only intact structure was her mother's moondial, and even that was covered in moss.

Serana met Sithia's sympathetic gaze. She swallowed hard, and spoke once she thought she could trust her voice not to break. "You were right. It's like we're the first to set foot here in centuries. I promise you, it didn't always look like this."

"This is more than just neglect."

Serana nodded glumly. "It is. I'm guessing the moment Mother fled the castle, Father went on a rampage. Knowing him, anything at all that reminded him of her was just destroyed. I suppose he wanted to put the past behind him."

"In pieces. Sorry."

Serana sighed. "Perhaps if he had spent more time with us, he would have recognised the beauty for himself." She pointed at what had been elegant steps. "This used to lead into the castle's great hall. I would walk through here after evening meals. It was beautiful once. Looks like my father had it sealed up."

"Or tore it apart," Sithia muttered. "At least it should mean no one finds us here." She lowered her mask again, maybe to enjoy the clear air after the stench inside.

"True." The mass of collapsed stonework filling what had been an impressive doorway left no gaps. Hopefully even sound couldn't get through there.

Serana looked around for anything out of place, anything that might hint at what her mother had been getting up to. Hopefully her father's tantrum hadn't destroyed any clues. There were a few gargoyles perched around the balconies overlooking the courtyard that Serana was pretty sure hadn't been there before. She eyed them suspiciously, but they were quiescent, covered with moss and lichen.

She wandered around the courtyard, not even sure what she was looking for. Her steps took her to the herb garden. Sithia followed, her presence a comfort amidst the bittersweet pain of the state of the place.

"This was my mother's garden. It… Do you know how beautiful something can be when it's tended by a master for hundreds of years? She would have hated to see it like this."

On closer inspection, there were still some living plants other than moss. Nightshade, amongst the dead thorny bushes. But that just made it even worse, as it looked so wrong when there should have been so many different plants in her mother's garden. Especially when they had spent so much time together looking after it…

Serana looked away. "I miss the flowers."

Sithia gave her shoulder a comforting squeeze. Serana raised a hand to give an appreciative squeeze back.

Sithia cleared her throat and pointed at the moondial. "Your father left that sundial untouched. Why? It wasn't one of your mother's additions?"

"It was, though. It's not a sundial. It was originally, but obviously that didn't appeal to my mother. She persuaded an elven artisan to make some improvements. You can see the plates that show the phases of the moons, Masser and Secunda." Serana wandered closer to scrape off some of the moss to reveal the underlying silvery plaques.

"Did it work?"

"That's the thing… What's the point of a moondial? I always wondered why she didn't just have the whole thing ripped out. But she loved it. I don't know. I guess it's like having a piece of art, if you're into that sort of thing." Serana couldn't keep the dubious tone out of her voice; she highly doubted Sithia was remotely interested in art.

Looking closer at the moondial, Serana frowned. She cleared away more of the concealing moss. At first glance she'd thought the moondial to be intact, the dial of it at least, but on closer inspection…

"What is it?" Sithia set to work helping shift the moss.

"Something's wrong with the moondial here. The dial is askew, and some of the crests are missing. I didn't even know the crests could be removed. Maybe my mother's trying to tell us something?"

"If she was the one to do it and not your father," Sithia muttered.

"I think he'd have ripped all of the crests out and smashed them too. There would be shards of silver scattered around."

"After all this time it'd be pretty tarnished if he had. Except the intact crests aren't… Hmm." Sithia tapped a finger against one. "Enchanted, of course. Even fragments probably still would be."

"Let's look around for them. They should stand out even in this mess." Serana walked a complete circuit around the moondial, counting the gaps in the crests. "There should be four of them. Oh wait, that's the space for the new moon. There's three of them."

In the shade cast by the surrounding towers Serana had the advantage, but Sithia still found one of the crests. They all gleamed silver even buried under the moss. One of them was in what was left of the pond, which Sithia understandably didn't volunteer to retrieve in the frigid air of the remote north of Skyrim.

They placed the crests back into their rightful positions, although some of the others needed rearranging too. Her mother must have tinkered with them, as that definitely wasn't her father's style of vandalism at work.

Once the crests were back where they belonged, the dial suddenly moved, grinding back to its original position aligned with the new moon, revealing a spiral staircase descending in the centre of the moondial, each step rotating into place.

"Very clever, Mother. Very clever," Serana murmured. Up until recently she'd never thought of her mother as particularly sneaky. Nothing quite like seeing for herself what her mother had got up to. That and to have kept all this hidden from her father…

Serana headed down the stairs. She expected the door she faced at the bottom to be locked, but it swung open at her touch. A wall blocked their way but a draught coming from under it coupled with a handle to the side revealed it to be false. Serana tugged at the handle and the wall rose up, revealing a neatly paved corridor that led under the courtyard towards what she'd thought to be a ruined tower.

"What's down there?" Sithia's chin brushed her arm as she leaned over for a better look from behind Serana.

"No idea. I've never even seen this part of the castle before. Be careful; I don't know what might be around. I'd always assumed the towers were completely destroyed inside, apart from the one leading to the great hall. Father must have thought the same thing. My mother kept this a secret, even from me. She must have been up to something she thought was dangerous. At least we must be getting closer. Let's go."

Serana led the way up a flight of steps and they emerged into a dining room, complete with table and chairs. At first glance it was abandoned, until a twinge of her necromantic senses had Serana examining the dusty furniture more closely. Skeletons sat slumped in the chairs, and they were only dormant, not dead.

"Wait—" Even as Serana said the word, it was too late.

Sithia took a step too close to the table. The lingering magic binding the skeletons to undeath flared into life, the fireplaces across the room igniting at the same time. The skeletons stood as one with a creak of bone, their eye sockets glowing blue.

Serana shrugged. It didn't really matter that Sithia had woken them up, they were only skeletons and soon reduced to piles of bones. Very dusty bones. Sithia doubled over in a coughing and sneezing fit, staggering away from the clouds of dust slowly settling on scattered dry bones. Serana held her breath and helped steady Sithia so she didn't collapse into yet more dust.

Once Sithia finally managed to get clear of the dust, both inside and out, she groaned. "Void take this dust."

"I've never seen so much. I wonder what my mother got up to in here. She definitely wasn't trying to keep the place clean."

Sithia coughed again, this time to thinly disguise the word 'princess' within the cough.

Serana ignored the provocative word. She wasn't the one who almost coughed up a lung.

Sithia sighed, perhaps disappointed by Serana's lack of reaction. "That or she's been gone for a very long time. And some other guests have taken over since she's left, and they don't care about getting dusty."

"Maybe. But if these are her skeletons, they could've been told to keep things dusted."

Sithia chuckled. "Can you imagine it? All these skeletons wielding brooms and dusters…"

"It'd make a change. Come on, there's more stairs over there. Let's see if it's this bad everywhere."

"Ugh. I hope not." Sithia pulled her mask up. "I forgot how useful this is to keep the dust out of me in ruins."

It was always a pity to see Sithia cover her face up, but Serana wasn't about to complain. She'd rather Sithia could breathe without choking.

They carried on up another flight of stairs, their footsteps leaving clear tracks on the stone. Tracks that came too close to another dormant sentinel of her mother's: a gargoyle lurking in the shadows. It burst into life behind them. Fragments of its stone disguise scattered amidst the cloud of dust thrown from it.

A lone gargoyle wasn't much of a challenge for either Serana or Sithia, and their combined efforts soon reduced it to a pile of rubble.

They went ever onwards and upwards inside the tower: through ruined and partially ruined rooms, rubble burying the beds in bedrooms, and a thick layer of dust coating everything. Braziers burst into flames at their approach, the same watchful spell rousing skeletons and gargoyles.

Not that anything caught them unawares. Skeletons creaked loud enough to wake the dead with the slightest move, and even when gargoyles were tucked away in corners they didn't exactly break out of their stone facades quietly.

Serana had been curious about what was inside the supposedly ruined tower. To her disappointment it really wasn't all that interesting so far: the architecture unsurprisingly the same as the rest of the castle, and, well… She nudged a pile of rubble with a toe, lip curling at the thick layer of dust coating everything. The inhabited part of the castle didn't smell pleasant thanks to the suffering of the human cattle and every other vampire being a lesser one compared to her, but at least it didn't reek of damp stone, dust and mould like this abandoned tower.

Sithia's voice came from the next no doubt rubble strewn room. "Oh look, another dining hall. How many of these does a castle need? There's the main one we met your father in, and there was the one with the skeletons sitting at the table, and now there's this. Also with skeletons."

Serana hurried on to join her on hearing the telltale creaking. The skeletons were soon smashed into piles of bone. She looked around, and Sithia was right. It was another dining room. "These are smaller halls. Maybe for servants to use, or the great hall was only used for special events? I have no idea, the previous inhabitants were gone by the time my parents had me join them here."

Sithia's frustrated growl was muffled by her mask. "Still so much dust. No one's been here for a very long time. Apart from them." She pointed at the scattered former skeletons.

"It might be better when we reach whatever my mother was up to in here. She always took care of anything important to her."

"After what's probably centuries of absence, don't get your hopes up."

"My hopes? I'm not the one choking on dust here."

"Nor am I with the mask up." Sithia gave her a knowing look. "I know you don't like it."

"I don't, but I prefer you to keep breathing."

"Thanks." With most of Sithia's face covered, Serana couldn't be sure how sarcastic she was being. Her tone was neutral, and her eyes lacked any sardonic glint, but… one could never be entirely sure with Sithia. "Anyway, in the event you're right and the dust disappears, the mask comes down, but if it doesn't? Sorry, Serana. "

"I can wait. It just makes the times when you can do without it more valuable to me."

"Flatterer."

"That's a matter of opinion," Serana muttered, too quietly for Sithia to hear. She'd only argue, and they had a lot to do before sunset unless they wanted to have to stay overnight before they made their escape from the castle, hopefully with her father none the wiser.

They continued onwards and upwards, picking their way up rubble scattered stairs, and picking off more skeletons and gargoyles lurking in the shadows.

"Another hall?" Sithia shook her head at the sight awaiting them through a portcullis, this one a cavernous chamber with clear tracks in the dusty floor left by patrolling skeleton guards.

Serana flinched away mid fight as they smashed the skeletons, taken by surprise when she got too close to the lingering Aedric aura at the end of the hall.

An anxious Sithia patted her down once the last creaking sentinel collapsed into a pile of bone. "Are you all right? Did one of those archers hit you?"

"No, I'm fine. Physically, anyway. It's like I just walked into bright sunlight when thirsty."

"Some kind of trap your mother set up?"

"No. No, this is far beyond her skills, unless she made use of it as a deterrent. See that?" Serana pointed, her eyes averted.

"Rubble?"

Serana sighed and briefly looked at the ruined shrine of Mara to accurately point it out. It wasn't anything like as bad as an active shrine tended by worshippers, but it still wasn't pleasant.

Sithia wandered closer. "Huh. Almost didn't see it in this dim light."

"Certainly something different, isn't she? Anything like that in the part of the castle my parents occupied was ripped out long ago. Unless you count my father's grim cathedral to Molag Bal, which I don't."

"I guess it'd count as a place of worship, but followers of any Aedra would be very insulted to be lumped in with their archenemies."

"I think your average devotee of the Daedra would be insulted too. They do have a tendency to see Aedra as weak and distant if they believe they exist at all. And of course Aedric worshippers are even more so for worshipping such weakness. Anyway, can we please move on from here?"

"If you don't mind going closer to it, seems our only path goes that way."

Serana sighed. "If I must."

They followed a long corridor looping around and above the hall, which did indeed take them closer to Mara's weeping statue. Sithia took Serana's hand and gave it an encouraging squeeze before hurrying her past.

Serana sighed with relief once they got beyond the Aedric echoes. "That's better. And we must be getting close, there can't be much tower left."

The corridor emerged into another dining room, with gargoyles posed around the table.

"More of your mother's pet rocks. Do gargoyles eat?"

"I don't know if they can. They certainly don't need to - they're magical constructs, not actual living creatures. My mother had a bit of a thing for them."

Sithia raised an eyebrow.

Serana dropped her head into her hands. She really could have phrased that better. Now Sithia must be thinking her mother was some kind of deviant. "Not… not what you're thinking. She just found them fascinating."

"I said nothing."

"You didn't need to."

"…True enough." Sithia chuckled. "Even if she did find them more than just fascinating, that's her business, and I'm sure you'd rather not think about it."

"Definitely not. Whatever my mother got up to in the proverbial bedroom, I'd rather not know."

Most of the gargoyles burst into life when they got too close, right after the braziers in the room flared up at their approach. They soon collapsed into rubble with a little help from Serana's magic and Sithia's sword. One of the gargoyles remained a statue, even after a suspicious Sithia jabbed at it with a silver sword she found at the end of the room.

"I think that one might be an actual statue like the one perched above that fireplace." Serana pointed at the fireplace right at the end of their path.

Sithia still whacked it a few more times to be sure, ruining the edge on the sword. "I'll sharpen it before I sell it," she muttered, shoving it into her enchanted pack.

Serana inspected the fireplace closely. "I don't think we've reached the top yet. I'd bet there's some kind of secret passage around here."

"Look at the dust down there." Sithia pointed at their feet.

The dust was scattered by a telltale draught coming from underneath the fireplace.

"There must be some sort of hidden handle or switch…" Sithia started looking for it.

Serana stepped forward and took a firm hold on the fireplace. With a tortured screech of stone on stone, she ripped it off and tossed it aside.

"Or you could do that. Just how strong are you?"

"Strong enough to open up the secret passage." Serana gestured at the exposed narrow flight of stairs. "Leave it to my mother… Always smarter than I gave her credit for."

"Really? You've already said she's more powerful than you are. I'd say you've given her plenty of credit."

"That's not the same as smarter."

"We'll see exactly how smart she was soon enough. Presuming this goes anywhere."

"Only one way to find out." Serana kicked the firewood of the decoy fireplace out of the way and led the way upstairs.

AN: Many thanks to Gaunty for betaing. Next chapter coming after I've finished editing it, as it was part of this chapter before I split it due to length.