AN: Tsubasa Hikaru: Finally got around to incorporating that quote. Hope you're happy with its placement!
To everyone: I hope that some of the developments in this chapter will be entertaining for everyone. Lucius' past is going to take a more central focus in this story arc, specifically the event that finally got him to flee his life of Thalmor slavery. Given how Harkon reacted to that event last chapter, I'm guessing you know which one.
On Thera's side of things, she's on a quest from Molag Bal. You'll see below that it's more than just simply Conquering the Sun for Harkon, and she's going to try and consolidate as much power as possible. The Vamp radiant quests will factor into her storyline, especially turning key political figures and obtaining the ancient vampire remains.
Fahiil
Thera
"So you were chosen by Molag Bal, without any prior sacrifices to him?" Harkon asked as another human cattle was tossed onto the dining table for me. It was a Bosmer – they have the best blood, honestly. Harkon said he was more of a Redguard man, the exotic blood of another continent. But the Bosmer... it's wild but still elven.
I took a deep, moaning breath as I came up for air from the shivering cattle's throat. "Ah... yes, that's right. Sought me out. I was being chased by, Divines knows how many Markarthian soldiers, when I was lucky enough to come across a Vigilant aiming to destroy the 'Daedric presence in this abandoned home.' Ah, how ironic."
"And you aided Molag Bal in killing this Vigilant of Stendarr?" Harkon asked.
"Among... other things," I replied after another lengthy draught of Bosmer blood. "And the rest, as humans say, is history."
"Indeed," Harkon replied with a grin. I smiled back. He was disgusting. Killing him as Molag Bal had requested would give me no small amount of pleasure. A human is still just a human, no matter how long he has tried to play immortal god. He was not worthy to destroy the Sun, to take the power of the gods for himself. No, that would belong to me.
I caught sight, once again, of the only other Vampire in the room. A dark haired woman in the corner whose golden eyes were filled with distrust. "How do you know Lucius?" I asked Harkon, but keeping my eyes on his daughter. Her face became... interesting upon the mention of my Jokaar's name.
"Ah, yes. Him," Harkon said with a sneer. He turned from the table and began posturing as if preparing for lies. Amateur, even after all those millenia. "Yes, the damned fool came her with blade drawn, threatening my daughter. Said he wanted to try and kill me. I fought him off, let him leave with his life."
I laughed. Harkon turned towards me angrily. "I've met him, many times. I am Dragonborn. We are destined for eternal war, Harkon. I know his soul more intimately than perhaps any at the moment. He would never threaten your daughter in the way you describe," I said with a smile. Harkon's eyes glanced up and down, sizing me up. "Let's do away with the language and the lies. Weaker beings call us monsters, Harkon. We take what we want, let us be blunt about it at the very least."
The Vampire Lord's eyes narrowed. "Indeed... He saved my daughter from eras of sleep, kidnapped by her mother," Harkon said, his calculating eyes still studying me. "I let him live as recompense."
I smiled. He was lying. "Was that so hard?" I asked with a trusting – though not too trusting – expression. Couldn't have him knowing I thought he was lying. Better to be believed a fool until you strike with the fury of a dragon than to let all see your cards as they are dealt. But it was clear enough in his eyes: Lucius had terrified Harkon. Understandable, given Lucius' far above average skills and surprisingly murderous side. Only one who truly enjoyed death could be the Butcher of Skingrad.
"No, I suppose not," Harkon said with a smile. He sighed. "Now, I have a task for just you. Have you ever heard of the Bloodstone Chalice?"
Sosnaak
Serana
The woman did not yet know of the treacherous orbit she had just entered, a satellite in the opposing gravities of the Dragonborn. A pawn, or yet perhaps more, in a game that had yet to begin. No, she did not know what powers had her in their dueling grasps.
She did, however, know that Lucius and Thera were opposites. Either was a shadow of the other, a negative. Red and Blue. Day and Night. Man and Mer. Mortal and Vampire. Most everything in Serana's gut told her to stay put, to remain with the Vampires. Lucius was a Dawnguard, a Vampire Hunter, after all. He was a mortal, a man with fire in his heart rather than ice in his veins. He slept at night, lived in the day. They could not be allies, much less friends. Thera was cruel, with a taste for blood and strength. She could bring about eternal night, just as Harkon, and indeed most Vampires, wanted. A true Vampire at heart. Just like me, Serana hissed to herself in an attempt to quiet the murmurs in her mind.
But that was not all. Luc – Lucius, she reminded herself, trying to convince herself even still – was not just a Vampire Hunter with his face in the sun and his mind on the day. He was a good man. That should have terrified Serana more, perhaps. Good men hunt monsters. Die in war with them. And yet, her heart and mind and soul kept telling her to ignore her gut. Run. Leave Castle Volkihar behind, run from her father, run from the darkness, run from Molag Bal. Run from Thera.
With a shaky breath, Serana pulled up her hood and disappeared into the daylight.
Jul
Lucius
"And who the hell is this?" the angry, short man growled. He was glaring at Durak with eyes that were filled with... well, I want to say gruff respect. "I thought I said no strangers."
"Ha! Isran, this is the Dragonborn," Durak replied. He grabbed my shoulder and shook me a little. "You asked me to get him."
"The Dragonborn's an Elf, Durak," Isran snapped. He rubbed his shaved head and sighed in exasperation. "She's the one we need."
I laughed in disbelief. "You wanted her?" I asked incredulously. I shook my head and sighed. "She's a monster."
"And you're a weakling. Honor is of no use to me," Isran growled. He stepped towards me. Despite how much taller than the man I was, he still made me feel small and weak. "And you are honorable."
"Thank you?" I replied. Isran growled to himself and turned to the fire. "Look, I want to help people. If you don't want me here, I'll leave. But I'm still going to fight."
"Do what you will," Isran replied coldly.
"But-!"
"Durak, be quiet," Isran snapped, quieting the Orc.
"You didn't let me finish, Isran," I said quietly, drawing the man's calculating gaze. "But if I leave, you won't hear what I've learned. Intelligence on the Vampire attacks, including the man who turned Vignar Greymane during the Civil War."
Isran glared at me for a while. "What are you waiting for Durak? Get the man a crossbow and meet us back here. We have some things to talk about."
Durak smiled at me. "I've never seen him change his mind before," the Orc remarked.
"Durak! Are you going to go do it!?" Isran barked, drawing a salute from the Orc, who bounded off to get me a weapon. Isran turned his gaze to me and gestured at the table in the great hall. We sat down together at one corner.
When Isran spoke, he was weary. Almost broken. "What did you learn?" he asked. I finally noticed how tired the man looked, as if he had not slept in days – perhaps longer. His head was not shaved, rather the hair had fallen out. Every breath caused his body to shudder.
"I -" I began. He looked up at me, the same fire in his eyes. "I know who was behind the attack on the Vigilants, and they are planning something huge."
"Get it out, boy," Isran whispered, the loudest he could manage at that moment. Why would he show me his true face, that of a tired old man?
"There is a... substantial coven of Vampires off the north coast, past Solitude," I explained. I pulled out Dawnbreaker. "Near Meridia's Beacon."
Isran's gaze stayed on the blade. "Good thinking getting your hands on that weapon, boy. Good for killing Vampires."
"That was the idea," I replied.
We were quiet for a short while. "What are they planning?" Isran finally asked.
I cast my gaze to the ground and sighed. "I'm not sure. But they have an Elder Scroll."
Isran gasped in fear. I looked up and Isran's powerful facade was up again, though perhaps no longer a facade. "Dammit. How did they get it?" he asked with a gravelly growl.
I laughed nervously. "Well, there was a girl..."
Isran stared at me, a terrifying, dark rage flowing from his eyes. "You see, this is why I wanted the other one," he hissed, poison in his voice. I swear, still, that his hand drifted towards the hammer on his back. "You get distracted by a pretty face."
"Well she just wanted to go home!" I responded, thinking that would help.
Isran was almost on fire with rage at that point. "She's a Vampire? The other one would have just killed her," Isran snarled. I whimpered in fear. "Thera wouldn't fail so blatantly."
"Except that woman is already a Vampire," a semi-familiar voice said. Isran and I both turned in surprise to the hooded, golden-eyed woman with an elven dagger trained on the Dawnguard's leader.
"Serana?!" I shouted.
"Vampire!" Isran screamed. He rushed towards Serana. Metal clattered against stone in the distance and I heard the pounding of a veritable army of boots rushing towards the entrance of Fort Dawnguard.
"No!" I snapped. I grabbed Dawnbreaker and ran towards Isran, shoving the man away from the Vampire woman. I smiled back at her. "So you've met my friends."
"Do they always attack women visiting you?" Serana asked dryly.
I laughed once. "Well, most don't have golden eyes and a taste for blood. Usually it's just the second one," I responded jokingly. I put myself between Serana and Isran, with the wall behind her. Dawnbreaker hissed in my hand, begging to kill Serana and not the mortal it was pointed at. Soon, Isran was joined by the entirety of the Dawnguard.
"What the hell are you doing?" Isran asked as he forced himself to stand. He glared at me with a look that could melt Dragonbone armor. "She's a Vampire. We kill Vampires, that's the oath here."
"Yeah, I think the name 'Dawnguard' was enough of a tip off for her," I replied. Dawnbreaker was still in my hand, its will bent to mine. "So she wouldn't come here unless it was important."
"Oh, she'll tell us," Isran growled. I thought of the torture room above.
"No. Not like that," I said. I took a step forward, a terrible threat in the movement. The Dawnguard, save their leader, flinched and took a step back. "She came here of her own free will. Alone. What Vampire who meant us harm would be crazy enough to do that?"
Isran glared at her. Beside him, one of the warriors began to raise a crossbow. A bolt of fire later, the wood and metal was melting on the stone. "Do not test me, Isran," I said. I narrowed my eyes. "You may think I have honor, but I killed the Count of Skingrad. Was that an honorable kill?"
Isran stared at me, the only one to not step back in fear at the very mention of the atrocity. Finally: "Lower your weapons. Durak, send out some agents of the Dawnguard to find old associates of mine – you know the ones. The rest of you, leave us."
The warriors, with barely a moment's hesitation, ran off to do as their leader had commanded. Isran glared at me, and I at him. "Put your weapon away, boy," Isran commanded as he slid his warhammer onto his back. "You'll hurt someone."
I stared at Isran, then did as he said. I crossed my arms in front of me and didn't move. "I can't talk to her if she's behind you," Isran growled as he noticed how firmly I was planted.
I looked over at Serana. "I can handle myself," she told me. As she walked by, she continued. "Thanks, though."
"What did you come here to tell us?" Isran asked her. His hand began to drift to his weapon, but he forced it down as soon as he noticed.
"Thera, your 'Superior Dragonborn?' She is a Vampire," Serana explained coldly. She was glaring at Isran with no small measure of disgust and distrust. Vampire Princess meets the haughty defender of mortals. This was not going to turn out well.
"You have no proof of that statement, girl," Isran said. His eyes were fixed on anything and everything but Serana.
"Actually, I do," Serana retorted. Isran's gaze drifted to hers. "She is a Daughter of Coldharbour, like me."
Isran's eyes widened and he moved to grab his weapon. When the ground beneath his feet was suddenly scorched by flames, he froze. "Enlighten me on why you're more angry than usual," I told the old man.
"A pure Vampire. There's other terminology you've probably heard. Lamae Bal, the first Vampire. She was... forcibly taken by Bal eons ago. In return, he gave her his blood. Domination. She became his child. A being of pure domination. A Daughter of Coldharbour, his very essence incarnate," Isran explained with cold eyes. "A pure Vampire, whose nature is not diluted by centuries of souls leaking into the blood."
"Lamae... Lamae Beolfag?" I asked.
"Yes," Isran explained. "The First, hopefully by now, dead, Vampire. Just like this monster over here."
Serana snarled and her eyes flashed red. I grabbed her shoulder. My Daedric armor glowed brighter as it touched her skin, reacting with the Daedric essence in her veins. "Lamae Beolfag... the last recording of her existence was in the second era, but only as a Vampire. She was the first?"
"A monster. The sun does little to them. Most weapons do little lasting damage. They're true immortals," Isran explained, struggling not to grab his weapon. He sighed and grabbed his wrist to hold it at his side.
"And now she is one of them," I said.
"She has no proof," Isran said again.
"I doubt that," I said. "I implore you, just listen."
Isran stared at me, confused. Then, it was as if he saw what he was looking for. He nodded. "Continue, girl."
"The she-elf, Thera. She was turned in Markarth almost a week ago," Serana explained.
Isran glanced down and back up so quickly I barely caught it. "You know something," Serana stated.
Isran growled. "My agents in Markarth have gone silent. I don't know what happened, but I am worried."
I stepped forward. "Send Serana and me," I said. Isran and Serana turned to me in surprise. "If she is telling the truth, as I believe, there will be physical ramifications of Molag Bal entering our world physically. When we get back, she can tell us the rest of her story."
Isran shook his head. "I don't trust her."
"Do you trust me?" I asked.
He frowned. "Skingrad, eh?" he asked. I nodded. "What was in the attic of the Count's castle."
I frowned. I leaned forward and whispered the answer to Isran. Serana looked at me with cool eyes. "Fine," Isran said. He turned away. "But watch out. To her, you're just another snack." And he was gone, off to work on the fort itself.
I turned to Serana. "Why did you come here?"
She scoffed and glared at me indignantly. "I told you!" she hissed.
I shook my head and smirked. "You told me part of it. You don't trust Thera – no one half-sane does. But no half-sane Vampire would walk into a castle full of Vampire Hunters without a very good reason. You, Serana, are definitely more than half-sane," I responded.
"Tell me something first," she said. I looked up at her. This was unexpected, but I immediately knew what she'd ask me about. "Then we can get going."
I stared at her without blinking. There was this... energy in the air between us. "The Skingrad incident occurred in the south and west of Cyrodiil in the one-time capital of the area, a city called Skingrad," I began. "I don't like to talk about it, but I'll tell you if you really want to know."
Serana looked taken aback. "Why?"
"Because you asked?" I suggested. I shrugged. "If we're going to be working together we need to trust each other. Might as well be the first to open up. Fair warning, though, my friends have a pretty bad knack for getting killed because of me."
"Then I guess we won't be friends," Serana said with a sigh. "Allies?"
I nodded. "Sure. Do you really want to know?"
"You can leave out what you want," she told me. "Just tell me what I need to know." She crossed her arms and pulled down her hood. Her hair brushed against her shoulder. I sat down on a nearby box and motioned for her to sit next to me.
As Serana sat down our fingers brushed together. She moved her hand away, flinching. She was a monster trying to be a good person... like me. "I'll tell you... most of it," I whispered hoarsely. I struggled to find my words, to tell her what I did without explaining to her what I did. "I was... after my parents died... I was in Skingrad during this event a little over seven years ago. The Thalmor – the Elves of the Aldmeri Dominion – began exterminating everyone there. They were looking for anything to discredit the Empire in those years, anything to attract more power to its base, when they learned that the count of Skingrad and the West Weald was a Vampire."
"And you... were an agent of these Thalmor? From what I understand, they look down on humans. Why would you aid them?" she asked.
"I was... Serana, I wasn't free back then," I whispered. I didn't tell most people about that, so why was I telling her?
"You mean you were a slave," she said simply. I glanced at her out of the corner of my eye. The pity usually present was not there. It was a welcome change, to not suddenly be seen as the man I was. It was going to be painful to watch that lack of pity become disgust.
"Yes. A trained attack dog," I said. I began anxiously moving my hands across my armored thighs. "I – I was sent in with one other, another like me, to exterminate the city. So we did. I did. Then -"
"You sound sorry for it," Serana pointed out. She clicked her tongue. "Okay. You killed a Vampire, lots of people have. I have."
I shook my head. "But I did worse things. I..."
"Don't," Serana said. She put her hand on my chin and pushed my gaze up to hers. "I've killed a lot of people, too, Luc. You don't need to think I'll run away from you because of it."
I looked at the ground, feeling hollow. "Is that why you try to act all pure?" she asked. I glanced up in surprise. "So you don't have to remember?" Her tone, despite her words, wasn't cruel. Her eyes were full of a kindness I did not expect from a Vampire's gaze. Compassion. Something else.
I smiled. "Yeah, probably," I said. I shoved the images of the blood-soaked indignities I had inflicted, and the woman they brought to mind. My soul shivered in remembrance of the cruelties we had unleashed together. Together. Repressed memories of a woman that I had turned into a monster. I stood up and looked at Serana and the drowning humanity in her eyes. Maybe my penance would be to make a monster human again, and in doing so regain some of my own humanity. Not just the mask I put on even still around real people. "We'll leave in the morning. It's too late right now."
"Why leave in the morning? It's the middle of the night, perfect time," Serana said. Oh, Vampires and their completely destroyed internal clocks.
I laughed at her confusion. "Right, you're a Vampire. When did you run away?" I asked. Her face said it all. "The day, right. We can get further before encountering the lackeys your father sent to retrieve you if we leave at first light. I know you've slept a lot lately, but what's one more night?"
Jul
Tanyin
The figure's cloak billowed out in the wild wind, a tattered, black thing that glowed faintly with enchantments laced into the fabric itself by a master of the craft years earlier. She closed her eyes and remembered him, his smell on the blood soaked battlefield so long ago. A true artist of death.
He had unlocked her true potential that night. The Man had freed her from the shackles of believing she, and all other humans, were people. No, she was a weapon, and a weapon was meant to be bathed in blood. The blood of human dogs was the fire in which she had become tempered.
And this was her next step in finding the one who had forged her. Magickal electricity jumped between her fingers as she thought of him. The Redguard stared with a grim smile from the cliff and down at the castle in the distant waters. She had tracked him here, the latest point she knew he had departed from. Since the scouts she was employing had been killed suddenly, these Vampires were the only ones that knew where he was. They would tell her, by the power of her masters, the Aldmeri Council, they would tell her.
The Redguard woman pulled down the hood of her cloak. Faded scars crisscrossed up and down the sides of her neck, with the melted flesh of a burn peeking out from the top of her mage's robes. The identity of her target, her reason for being in that gods-forsaken frozen tundra of men, came from her lips. The name of her creator, the one she would return to his masters. The name he had chosen when he had defied his purpose, the one his animal parents had given him before his purpose had been revealed to him. The man she would kill to bring the true creature back to the fore: "Lucius. I'm coming for you, luv."
