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Word count.

Original: 2,464

Re-write: 5,567

Chapter XII

Honour thy family

Mortis

I walk over to the pedestal that's overlooking the carved stone spiral. Putting the shards of crystal into the stone bowl with the rest of the list. "That's all of the ingredients?" I call over to Serana who's still stood looking through the journal, she has her back to me, leaning against a railing, her head hung low as she reads the words on the old paper. I wait for her to finish what she's reading, looking at the small collection of objects.

She closes the book sharply, pushing herself away from the railing and turning to walk up the steps to where I am. "We have a problem." She calls up to me as she walks up the stairs. "To open the portal we need her blood." She tells me, reaching the top of the steps she moves over to a set of shelves and starts looking at the assortment of objects scattered on them. "Which if we could get we wouldn't need to use the portal." She mumbles, looking at me sideways.

I lean against the railing, pulling one of the shards out of the bowl to look at it better. The surface is smudged and scratched, cracked where it was broken from the rest of the crystal. I hold the shard up to the light of a nearby torch, letting the light shine through the dark purple almost black crystal. "I used to know someone who said he could hear the screams of the damned in these things." I grumble, Serana looks over at me again. I stand there, staring at the cracked soul gem. I quickly drop it back in the bowl. "He was full of shite." I mumble.

"Who was he?" She asks from by the shelves, I look up at her, she's still looking over the shelves. That's a good question, I never really got to the know any of them, never really wanted to get to know any of them. I knew Astrid and I knew Nazir, that's as far as I can tell. Can't even remember the other's names. There was those before them, in Gildi and then the other sanctuary. They're even further away, hidden in the memories of a man who doesn't exist anymore.

"A dead man."

20 years before the reformation of the Dawnguard

We sit in the old damp stone walled room. Water drips from the ceiling, creating a soft tapping on the stone floor. The only torch in the room casts deep shadows around the walls. I sit on one of the two stools in here, left hand resting on the hilt of my sword. I lift up the crystal to the light of the torch. The greyish blue lighting up as I do.

I look passed it to the other man in the room. The aging, crippled warrior staring at his own crystal, a sack of them in his other hand. He looks at me, his blue eyes staring at my own green ones. "You know what these are boy?" He asks, his voice scratches as he speaks, sounding deeper in the cramped stone room.

"No." I answer him. He nods slightly. He puts his away and I throw the one I was looking at over to him, he catches it and stares intently at it. "In five days' time, the Empire will be here to collect Frokunn's head." I grumble to him. "They're already on the march, when they get here how they kill us will be entirely in their hands."

Dagmek's face splits into a smirk. "We won't retreat boy." He holds the crystal up to the light. "We're Nords, the last true Nords." He looks at me. "When the Empire get here they'll fight like the cowards they are, hide behind our own wars and use their siege weapons to try and force a surrender." He stares at me again. "We won't allow them that, we will die with the blood of the Empire on our blades." He growls at me. "With mead in our stomachs and an axe in each hand." He grins again. "The Empire will die with shite in their armour." He looks at the crystal. "And if I die in five days' time, then it'll be with a whore's mouth on my cock."

I smirk at that. Doesn't mean I plan on staying here and waiting to die but that doesn't sound like a bad way to go. Just have to find myself a whore. "What are these then?" I ask, gesturing to the crystal in his hand.

"Soul gems." He grumbles in response. He stares at the small crystal, then looks at me. "A soul trapped inside." He looks at me. "Some of that Altmer shite." He spits, looking back at the crystal. "Still, I can see it." He stares at the Crystal in his hand. "Hear the screams of the damned." He looks at me. "Of dead men." He puts the soul gem in the sack with the others. "I can't think of a fate worse than that." He puts the sack on the one of shelves. "Kvenkir's blood runs through your veins, the blood of a leader." He stares at me. "Would you retreat?" He grumbles.

I lean heavily against the railing and glance down at the stone spiral carved on the floor. "You're her daughter." I grumble to her. She walks closer to me and comes to a stop. "The same blood runs through your veins as hers." I look at her, she nods to herself and glances down at the spiral.

"Mistakes with these types of rituals can be catastrophic." She mumbles. "The Soul Cairn may be extremely dangerous." She nods absently to herself and glances at the pedestal. "If we fail to retrieve the Scroll the outcome will also be catastrophic."

"Harkon can't open the portal by himself." I mumble resting my hand on my belt. I look at Serana. "We could just leave it." I grumble. If Harkon's plans are reliant on the Scroll then we could just end it right now by burning the book. Although Isran and Serana will find a way to drag me back in, make me solve their problems. They need help and I'm in need of direction, I've been wandering too long.

"You're right." She draws her knife and walks over to the pedestal, closing her hand over the blade. "My father may not be able to get the Scroll but he will do anything to ensure his survival and clutch onto his power." She drags the knife along her palm and lets the blood fall into the basin. There's a brief silence Serana opens her mouth, looking like she's about to say something when the basin catches fire, purple flames jumping from the bowl. The spiral starts to turn the stone grinding against itself as they turn and rise to form steps. "We have to stop him." She tells me, a purple orb forms at the bottom of the newly formed stairs. "She actually did it." She mumbles looking at the portal.

I stare at the purple light. The deep purple burning brightly as black seeps into the middle. I glance at Serana, she's busy putting her knife back into the small sheath on her belt. "How…?" I trail off Serana looks at me and raises an eyebrow. "Do we… just walk into it?" I question her, she looks off to the portal and nods. I start to walk down, towards the ever changing orb of light. The middle becomes white and the edges burn a deeper purple then before. I can hear them, the screams of the damned, the whispers of the dead. I stop at the edge and close my eyes.

"Step on in."

I open my eyes and look around at Serana, she's stopped moving, looks to be waiting for me to make a move. I know who it was and it wasn't her. The clawing in my skull. I take another step and I feel it, my breath gets shallower and slower. My skin starts to burn and I can feel a shiver run down my spine. My legs give way and I fall onto the hard stone steps, letting out a loud grunt as I hit them. Serana runs down the steps and grabs my arm, helping me up and back to the top of the stairs. I slump down at the top of them and rest my back on the stone railing.

Serana paces in front of me while I try and get a hold of myself again. "Are you alright?" She asks me as I look up at her, I rest my head back. "That looked painful." She mumbles to me.

I let out a low grunt, grumbling to myself as I look at her properly again. "It was." I grumble, giving my hand out for her to help me up, she helps me stand up and I lean against the railing. I clear my throat and look down at the portal again. "What happened?"

"It was my fault." She mumbles to me, I look at her and she rings her hands again. "I should have seen that coming." There's a pause as I suppose she searches for the right words. "The Soul Cairn requires payment." I push away from the railing. "Your soul." I grunt slightly in response. "It didn't try and take mine because a vampire is technically dead."

I rest my hand on my belt, hooking my thumb on my dagger. "So you have to be dead to travel to the Soul Cairn." I grumble, she goes to answer but I don't listen to what she says. I don't need confirmation for what's obvious in life. I was looking for a way to make it better but this isn't it, at least not now. I don't think I'm at that point yet.

"… There is another way though." I hear that, after the silence I've exiled myself to. I look up at her quickly. "It's dangerous and painful." She adds, looking at me, staring straight into my eyes. "I can partially soul trap you, give that to the Ideal Masters." She looks away from me and to the portal. "Hopefully it will be enough." She rings her hands again, looking back to me. "Whatever option you choose, I won't think any less of you."

I nod to myself, wiping the back of my hand over my mouth. "Hmm." I grunt. I walk away from her, heading down to the bookshelf, I start running my finger over the spines of them. I can't read any of them, not unless they're written in the Cyrodiilic language. I pick out one of the books holding the old, dusty and battered leather-bound book in my hand. There's scratching on the front, tears in the leather.

"What will the price be?" I call over to Serana, turning my head slightly to look at her. "Of the soul trapping?" I ask her, I let the book drop from my grip and land on the floor. "There's always a price. What is it?"

"You'll be weaker in the soul cairn." She leans against the railing. "Only in the Soul Cairn, if it all goes fine you should be alright while in Nirn." She looks down and rings her hands. "If you were to become a vampire if I was to bite you, change you…" She looks up from her hands, locking her gaze on me. "You'll be just as strong in the Soul Cairn as you are in Nirn, you'll be stronger, quicker…"

"Dead." I interrupt. I'm not ready to die or maybe I am, I've been ignoring life for the last ten years. Maybe it's finally caught up to me, maybe I can finally let go. I move my left arm and curl my hand into a fist, its weak nowhere as strong as I could once muster. My bodies ready but I'm not. "Soul trap." I grumble lowly, so low that I hope maybe she didn't hear me.

"Are you sure?" She asks, I hang my head slightly but walk up the steps to meet her on the small stone overhang. "It's very dangerous and I've never done it before." She looks nervous, too nervous. She'll be more likely to fuck up if she's nervous. I need to reassure her, make sure she thinks I have faith in her. Maybe I do.

"I trust you."

She looks at me properly now. Nods her head with a newfound resolve, that confidence I've seen when she fights. Not the nervousness around Harkon and Isran or even me, this is a warrior and if she wants to free herself she'll need to be a warrior. She pulls her knife out and gestures for me to remove my glove. I do so, taking the thick leather glove from my left hand. She holds the knife out and I grip the blade, feeling the sharpened steel edge slice into the skin. She pulls down quickly, casting a spell with her free hand that has a soul gem tucked between two of her fingers.

"You're a fool." The voice whispers over my shoulder. Then I see it, a young man dressed in rough clothes, he swings a roughly forged iron axe at me, my axe, my head. I flinch back, pulling my right arm up to block the attack, pulling my left arm up to help. Nothing comes.

"I'm sorry." Serana tells me, I open my eyes not realising I'd closed them. My hand burns, the cut throbbing with each thump of my fast beating heart. "You know I'd never do anything to hurt you right?"

I look up at her, it takes a few seconds for my eyes to focus on her face. I just stand there at a loss for words while she wraps a rag around the gash on my hand. She stops and stares at the dull ring for a minute. "I wasn't lying." I tell her, she looks at me and nods.

The Soul Cairn feels strange. The air thick with something I can't quite work out. I stop at the top of the steps that must have formed when the portal opened. Serana goes straight down. I lift my hand up, looking at the rag tied tightly around my hand. I turn my head to the side slightly. The sky is dark, purplish. Dead tress dotting the landscape, if they are trees.

I feel a lot weaker, too weak. I can feel the old aching in my arm, I haven't felt that for a quite a few years, only when I fight, now it's there constantly. I can feel the burning in my abdomen, from both of the scars in my stomach. I curl my right arm around my abdomen, looking down at Serana. She turns to look at me and I drop my arm away and straighten out before she can tell somethings wrong.

"Look at this place." She murmurs to me, I start to walk down the steps towards her. "The air, the ground everything feels wrong." I nod in agreement, finally reaching the bottom of the steps. I rest my left hand on my dagger, trying to take some of the ache away from it, my elbow locks up slightly. "You feeling fine?" She asks me.

I look up slightly, trying to get a better lay of the land. "Aye." I walk off to the side of the beaten path. "Where should we start looking?" I question her, grumbling to her. There's a large structure in the distance, a glowing blueish dome surrounding it. "There?" I grunt, raising my right hand to point out at it.

She hums her agreement and starts to lead the way over to the structure. Walking hurts with each step jolting my old wounds. Serana looks back at me, looking me up and down. "You look in pain." She mumbles to me.

I don't bother answering her, just keep walking. We need to get that scroll and we can't afford to waste time, especially not with something that happened years ago. I drop my arm from my belt and stretch it out as we carry on walking, pulling my gauntlet back on.

There's a scratching somewhere off to the right of us, the sound of dirt and rock crumbling. I stop dead in my tracks and draw my sword, Serana follows my lead and pulls her knife out, readying her other hand with a spell. There's more noises around us and then something climbs out of the ground. A skeleton, charred black bones, glowing blue eyes. It struggles out of the dirt, its movements jerky and slow. It pushes itself to its feet and pulls an axe up with it. I looks up at us and more rise from beneath the dirt.

I take a few steps back and look to Serana, she's staring off in the distance to where more are unearthing themselves. One of them rushes forward, running surprisingly quickly. It lashes out with an old rusted sword and I have to act fast, moving my own sword out to meet the iron blade I have to move my body to the side in order to parry the blade at the angle it's at. I hear the frost coated crackle of Serana's spells as she meets her own opponents in battle.

Another runs at me, I struggle to block another attack from the first. When the second gets too close I'm forced to retreat back away from them a third forcing me to move even further away from Serana. One of them jumps at me, getting as much weight behind its axe as it possibly can. It lands on its feet just in front of me and the weight from the strike makes me fall onto my back. I roll out of the way as it quickly follows up the attack with another one the blade of the axe sinking deep into the dirt.

I rush to get to my feet, doubling over as there's a sharp pain in my stomach. It only lasts a second or two but I know that feeling. It feels like the day it happened. I cry out slightly and fall to my knee, my left arm curled around my stomach, clutching at a ghostly pain that shouldn't be there. I can feel the sweat drip off my face as I look up at the burned skeletons. The one with the axe walks towards me.

One of the others rushes forward to end me, I don't think I'd be able to block the attack. The skeleton gets within arm's reach before a spear made of ice cuts through its rib cage, smashing the bone to pieces as it flies straight through, the skeleton collapses to the ground the momentum of its running carrying it still for a few feet. The third attacks Serana making her use her knife and the skeleton with the axe turns to face her. I stand up and wrap my arm around its neck, slamming the pommel of my sword into its arm, making it drop the axe. I throw it to the side, it lands on its stomach. I stumble back as it leaves my arms, quickly correcting myself I look down at the creature and it goes to push itself up. I quickly slam my boot onto its spine, making it hit the ground hard, snapping a few of the ribs. I fall to my knee and stab my sword into its skull. Killing it.

I let myself fall onto my back, lying in the dirt I close my eyes pull my glove off, feeling my abdomen, checking for blood. "We need to move." Serana says to me, I open my eyes and she's stood over me, concern clear on her face. "Come on. We need to move."

"I know." I pant out, I push myself up lifting my sword up as I do, it feels heavier then I remember. She grabs my shoulder and I realise I was stumbling back. I put my hand on her shoulder for support. "Lead the way." I groan to her. There's more of the scratching sound behind us. We stop moving and Serana readies herself. "Oi." I grunt. She turns to me and I draw my sword, flipping it around so I'm holding the blade, I throw it to her and she catches it by the hilt. I pull my bow around and ready an arrow. I nock the arrow and wait for one of the skeletons to climb out of the dirt.

One of them charges straight for us, Serana quickly attacks it, swinging the sword in broad arches, hacking at the creature's knee in order to down it as quickly as possible. Another comes up to attack her and I release the arrow, letting it sail through the air and strike the skeleton's rib cage, smashing the bones and making it collapse to the ground. "Back up!" I shout to her, nocking another arrow. She spins around to block the attack of another skeleton and starts to run towards me, I release the second arrow, killing the closest one to me. Serana runs passed me and I turn around following after her. "Too many!" I shout to her back. Another comes out of the dirt and swings a mace down over head at Serana, she raises the sword holding the blade sideways to block, leaving her defenceless, I run towards her and kick the skeleton hard where its stomach should be.

"We might find shelter there!" She tells me, pointing off to the structure we'd been heading to. She starts to run, leading the way with me following close behind. I look over my shoulder, still running. We're being followed by a group of around ten of those skeletons, too many for us to handle especially when I'm in this condition. We finally reach the structure, looks to be a colosseum of some kind, like the one in Cyrodiil. Serana runs up the steps, and turns around. I quickly pull and arrow out of my quiver. I turn to face the group of skeletons but they've stopped running. They back away a few steps before sinking into the ground again.

I swing the bow around and put the arrow back. "Let's get inside." I grumble to her, not looking at her. I rest my hand on my belt and I hear her footsteps behind me, then the weight of my sword being put back into its scabbard. "Quickly." I grumble, I turn around slowly.

Serana walks up to the arching doorway, stopping abruptly. I follow her closely, stop a few feet away from her. "There's a barrier." She mumbles, placing her hand palm down on the barrier. "What's in there?" She asks quietly, mostly to herself.

I take a few steps away from her and sit down on a stone ledge at the top of the steps. I look down at my boots and pull my gauntlet out from under my belt, looking at the wound on the palm of my hand. "Serana." I look up, there's an older woman stood behind the barrier, Serana looks frozen in place. "It can't be." The woman mumbles. "Is it really you?"

Serana looks back at me and then back to the woman, her mother. "How do we…?" She mumbles, trailing off. "We need to talk." She looks off to the side.

"What are you doing here?" Her mother asks. "Where's your father?" I pull my gauntlet back on and get up to walk over to her. "I must have failed. Harkon's found a way to decipher the prophecy, hasn't he?"

Serana holds her hands up. "No, you've got it all wrong, we're here to stop him… make everything right again." She tells her mother. "We can stop him." She adds, the conviction heavy in her voice, her mother looks sceptical.

"You've brought a stranger here." She says. "Have you lost your mind?" She demands, Serana tries to argue with her. "You." She says, looking straight at me. "Come forward, I would speak with you." I take a few steps towards the barrier. "Who sent you? How did you come to meet my daughter?"

I stand in front of her for a few seconds in complete silence. "The Dawnguard hired me to search a cavern." I grumble. The older vampire looks panicked at the mention of the Dawnguard. "Found her in a coffin."

"How has it come to pass that a vampire hunter is in the company of my daughter?" She mumbles, looking between Serana and myself. "It pains me to think you'd travel with Serana under the guise of her protector in an effort to hunt me down."

"Not her protector." I grunt. "Not hunting you." I lift my hand up and point at her. "Hunting what you have. The Elder Scroll." I tell her, she looks at me, squinting slightly. "It's not a ruse, I want to… keep her…" I trail off slightly, looking off to the side. "I want to help." I tell her.

She stands there, deep in thought for a few seconds. "Coming from one who murders vampires as a trade I find it difficult to believe your intentions are noble." She gestures to Serana. "My daughter has sacrificed everything to prevent Harkon from completing the prophecy. I would have expected her to explain that to you."

I take a step forward. "That's why I'm here, for the scroll."

"You truly believe that I would have the audacity to place my own daughter in that tomb for the protection of the Elder Scroll alone?" She pauses and stares at me. "The scrolls are merely a means to an end. The key to the Tyranny of the Sun is Serana herself."

We've been chasing ghosts, searching for answers when we didn't even have the right questions. Finding Serana's mother wasn't the right move, coming here to this place wasn't the right move. This has just been one long string of making the wrong moves at the wrong time. "Tell me everything." I demand her. I look back at Serana, she's leaning against one of the walls, staring down at her feet. "Tell us everything." I amend.

"When I fled Castle Volkihar, my home. I fled with two Elder Scrolls, the scroll I presume you found with Serana speaks of Auriel and his arcane weapon. The second scroll declares that "the Blood of Coldharbour's Daughter will blind the eye of the Dragon." She tells me, not stopping for me to ask questions, not leaving time for me to get my bearings with what she's telling me. "Like myself Serana was human once. We were devout followers of Lord Molag Bal, tradition dictates the females be offered to Molag Bal on his summoning day." Her fist clenches slightly. "Few are offered, even fewer survive." She pauses. "Those that do emerge as pure blooded vampires." She pauses again and stares at her daughter. "Daughters of Coldharbour."

"Harkon needs Serana's blood." I grumble, I look to Serana, she's still staring at her boots.

"Now you're beginning to see why I needed to protect my daughter, why I kept the other Elder Scroll as far from her as possible." She tells me. "Harkon will go to any length, Serana and I would be his means to that end."

"Harkon means to kill her." Serana looks up at her mother.

"If Harkon obtained Auriel's bow and Serana's blood was used to taint the weapon, the Tyranny of the the Sun would come to pass." I turn back to face her, she leans forward. "In his eyes, she'd be dying for the good of all vampires."

"I won't allow that to happen." I tell her. "I'll kill Harkon."

She looks off to the side, opening her mouth and then turns back to me. "I don't doubt your abilities, but Harkon will kill you." She tells me, the gravity of the situation easily carried in her voice. "Make no mistake, Harkon is a very skilled killer. I'm afraid a lot more skilled then any of us, especially the two of you." She sulks back slightly. "Don't you think I weighed that option before I enacted my plans?"

I put my arm out, gesturing to Serana. "And what about her opinion in all of this?" I ask. I've seen first-hand what her planning has done to Serana, no explanation on what was happening but she's suffered for it. Suffered enough.

"You care nothing for Serana or our plight!" She snaps at me, obviously angry with my question, although I'm not sure if it's because I'm questioning her planning or her position as a mother. "It doesn't matter if you've become one of us in order to survive the Soul Cairn, you're still a vampire hunter at heart." She snarls, mocking me with her words that don't apply to me. I'm neither a vampire nor a vampire hunter. "You're here because we're abominations in your mind." She leaves a long pause, letting me and Serana think about her words. "Evil creatures that need to be destroyed."

"I believe in him." Serana says. Her voice sounding quiet in contrast to mine and her mother. "Why won't you?" She asks, louder now than before.

Her mother turns her full attention to Serana. "This stranger aligns himself with those that would hunt you down and slay you like an animal." She says it a lot quieter then when she was talking to me. "Yet I should entrust your safety to him?"

Serana walks over to the barrier, her fists and jaw clenched. "This "stranger" has done more for me in the brief time I've known him than you've done in centuries!" She snarls at the other woman, leaving her briefly speechless.

Her mother crosses her arms, squares her stance. "How dare you!" She snaps at her, a slight humourless laugh polluting the words. "I gave up everything I cared about to protect you from that fanatic you call a father!" She shouts back.

"Yes, he's a fanatic… he's changed. But he's still my father." She answers, her voice is thick, maybe it's despair that's layered so heavily on it. Maybe it's more of a tired anger. "Why can't you understand how that makes me feel?"

"Oh, Serana. If you'd only open your eyes. The moment your father discovers your role in the prophecy, that he needs your blood, you'll be in terrible danger." She gestures to me. "This man can't protect you anymore then I could."

"So to protect me you decided to shut me away from everything I cared about?" She asks. "You never asked me if hiding me in that tomb was the best course of action, you just expected me to follow you blindly." She takes a step back. "Both of you were obsessed with your own paths. Your motivations might have been different, but in the end, I'm still just a pawn to you, too." She takes a pause. "I want us to be a family again. But I don't know if we can ever have that… Maybe we don't deserve that kind of happiness. Maybe it isn't for us." She takes a step back this time, resolve heavy in her voice. "But we have to stop him. Before he goes too far. And to do that, we need the Elder scroll." She leaves another long pause. "I'm done following you blindly."

Her mother hangs her head. "I'm sorry, Serana. I didn't know… I didn't see." She looks back up. "I've allowed my hatred of your father to estrange us for too long. Forgive me. If you want the Elder scroll, it's yours." She turns back to me. "You're intentions are still somewhat unclear to me. But for Serana's sake, I'll assist you in any way I can."

"You have the scroll with you?" Serana asks, sparing me having to answer.

"Yes." She turns to her daughter, sorrow clearly written in her eyes. "I've kept it safely secured here ever since I was imprisoned. You'll need to breach the barrier that surrounds these ruins."

I rest my hand on my belt. "What do we need to do?" I speak first this time, Serana's obviously struggling with this meeting, meeting her mother after all this time. I know what that's like.

"Locate the tallest of the rocky spires that surround these ruins. Destroy the Keepers that are tending them, and it should bring the barrier down. There are three in total." She informs me, nodding her head towards one of the spires visible from our position.

"We'll return soon." I turn to walk away, Serana already halfway down the steps.

"One more word of warning." I stop walking, turning to look back to her. "There's a dragon that calls itself Durnehviir roaming the Cairn. Be wary of him. If you're perceived as a threat, he will kill you." I nod to her turning to walk down the steps, Serana's already at the bottom. "Be careful, and keep my daughter safe."

Be careful and keep my daughter safe, those two don't go hand in hand, I'm always forced between a rock and a hard place. Maybe this time I won't be forced to choose.