Chapter Twenty-One

"You've gotten quiet," remarked Serana, looking back at the redguard as they walked along the rocky path. They were well over halfway home now, the stars obscured with clouds, the two moons only a faint glow behind the grey blanket.

"I don't talk much as we travel," she replied, eyes lowered on the road. "I'm getting used to things."

A slight knowing look crossed the nord's face, and she stopped moving entirely. "Is it the night vision?"

A half nod was given. "It hasn't been this dark outside for a while. And I feel like I can see more with every passing night." Yosa'Min held her hand out before her, turning it over a few times, watching it keenly to see the differences. It felt as if suddenly she'd never seen it before. "Everything becomes keener at night."

Serana smiled, the words bringing a rush of warmth to her. It sounded as if the Dragonborn was liking it too. "Just imagine what it'll be like when you have the strength to transform," she said, her burning orange eyes like a pair of suns. "When you become night."

To get where they were so quickly, having only been about a half day of traveling, Serana had transformed into her vampire lord form, and carried Yosa'Min until her body could take the strain no more. She'd been quite ravenous afterwards, and the pair had to detour through the Reach to track down a tribe of Forsworn to drink from. They'd tasted particularly disgusting to Yosa'Min, but she'd been so thirsty herself she wasn't going to complain. Now they were crossing a bend in the mountains, somewhere between Markarth and Solitude to the point neither of them were entirely sure.

While she'd been carrying Yosa'Min, the redguard protesting for a bit about being carried in Serana's arms like some child, Serana had had to focus her entire attention on the trail. Yosa'Min's burning gaze had been admiring her form for quite a while, leaving trails of nervous heat where she'd looked. Last time she'd been in this form, Yosa'Min had seemed thoroughly afraid of her. Greyish green skin and long white hair were probably the least startling of her acquired features. The grotesque wings that were seemingly useless, gained stature and face alone had been what worried Serana. She'd been sure that Yosa'Min would think lowly of the transformation, but it seemed she'd taken a more affectionate or at least appreciative stance on it since last.

They'd only stopped traveling as such because Serana's body couldn't handle it any longer. Now, having fed, they were drawing closer to the clan of vampires. Yosa'Min's pledge of fidelity was rather uplifting, but Serana's mind was growing more clouded with worry of what her father would do next. They'd moved with all haste to complete his request, and now she wondered how he would judge her fledgling. If she weren't quite strong enough for her father's seemingly ever rising standards, it would get violent swiftly. She could feel it, was certain of it, that she would protect Yosa'Min no matter what.

"I think it would be nice," Yosa'Min suddenly said. "Maybe when I transform I can put it all behind me."

"What all behind you?"

Yosa'Min waited for a few moments, sweeping her gaze to the land about them before returning to her sire's burning glow. "My old life."

Biting her cheek a bit, Serana started walking forward again. "Ah, right." She nodded her head. "The transformation can be quite… well changing. Not just physically."

"Is that the point of no return?"

"What?" Serana's brow furrowed and she addressed her fledgling in full again. "No return from what?"

"Being this monster."

A flash of hot anger burned up her and she wished she could let loose her thoughts, only to remind herself of how it took time to acclimatize and that Yosa'Min hadn't been a willing fledgling. "You are no monster."

Yosa'Min sniffed, refusing to look at her despite her sire's gaze slicing through her. "Yeah no, I'm a monster. I'm just starting to accept it." Serana relaxed a bit, but still she felt on edge. If a fledgling was convinced they were a monster, they'd tend to submit to the beast side of themselves. That would pose numerous dangers Serana would prefer unrealized.

"You're already past that point then."

"Oh," she blinked, hands clenched at her sides. "Alright then."

They were silent for some time again, walking in unison through curving mountain paths that were speckled with snow. A cold, salty wind rushed against their faces, letting them know they were getting close to the Sea of Ghosts. "Why are you so afraid of what we are?" Serana suddenly asked, no longer able to contain the question that had been boiling in her mind.

Yosa'Min, who's expression was almost always blank when they traveled, looked at her and gave a shrug. "Shouldn't it be obvious?"

"Well I've been like this for centuries, I don't remember most of my mortal fears."

There was a flash in the redguard's eyes, and she bit her lip. "I know I've asked if it were wrong before, last we traveled to your home, but I miss my old life… And all this traveling, in places I used to know and be free to roam, it feels like I'm in some world between Nirn and Mundus."

Serana lowered her gaze, thinking hard. She herself would have moments of yearning to her life before all this, before her father turned them into vampires. Unlike for Yosa'Min however, there was nothing left of that old life, so how could she truly want for it. Perhaps if things had gone differently, she would have a chance but Serana couldn't see any other way than moving forward. Suddenly, she had an idea and she turned to her with a slight hopeful smile.

It garnered nothing but a confused frown. "What?"

"Tell me about your old life," Serana suddenly said.

Yosa'Min blinked, as if she didn't even understand her at first. "What? Why would I tell you about that? I'm trying to forget that part of me after all. Isn't that what you want?"

Shaking her head, Serana stepped a bit closer to her fledgling. "No never, you can't forget who you were as much as I can. You never should. Instead, maybe talking about it will help you realize some things and come to terms with it all." There was silence further, the pair standing as Yosa'Min struggled to answer. Serana was content with waiting however. This would be the first time she'd encouraged anything so open about the past before. A slow, uncertain nod was given.

With a reassuring smile, Serana started walking further, the action helping calm Yosa'Min as well as she followed, allowed to focus on something else as they moved. "So where do I start?" She asked.

"Simple stuff," Serana replied. "Where did you live?"

"Four places really," Yosa'Min said. "I was born in Elinhir, a city in Hammerfell but I was raised outside it on a farm in an outlying village. I moved to Falkreath when I was nineteen, and when I was twenty nine I started living in Whiterun. About six months ago I took up residence in Riften." She glanced at Serana, "What about you?"

"You wouldn't know the places, they don't exist anymore," she said, "but a good amount of my life has been spent in my father's castle... That and a crypt."

Some birds took off besides them, startling the pair before they further conversed. "Do you have any siblings Serana?"

"No, you?"

"Three... Though the only one I considered family is gone."

"I'm sorry to hear," Serana said, quickly trying to change the subject, "so why did you take up hunting?"

"To feed my brother and I, once we moved to Falkreath. He'd taught me everything I knew and I only got better from there. I used to have a hunting buddy even..." She trailed off, suddenly very unwilling to talk.

It seemed to Serana nearly everything was going to end with some memory blocking the fledgling from continuing. With a faint sigh, Serana pushed a bit more. "So you like bows? I can't imagine hunting with a sword, nor have I even seen you with one."

"Ah yes, I love bows. I'm afraid I don't have one anymore though after my last one broke in two."

"What happened?" Serana looked back over her shoulder. The ground was curving back downwards, signifying they were nearly at sea level. Looking out on the horizon, she could just make out the motion of waves in the dark night.

"I was hunting down a traitor to the Thieves Guild with a few others, and we'd finally tracked him down. In the ensuing battle, he came upon me and I had to block the attack with my bow. It ended up snapping, despite being of daedric make."

Serana skeptically looked back at her. "You say the most outlandish things sometimes."

Shrugging, Yosa'Min smirked back at her. "As do you. So what else do you want to know?"

Serana mulled on her options, reminding herself to get Yosa'Min a bow at some point, and then asked, "So why a thief?"

The redguard grew silent with thought, having been expecting the question and yet she couldn't decide on her answer now that it was here. "I guess to survive really. I was poor, and had to take care of my brother when we moved to Skyrim. There wasn't really any work, and hunting only gets you so far, so I started taking what didn't belong to me. I got good, and crime is addicting, eventually I couldn't stop."

"So you could almost say it was like feeding?"

"What?" Yosa'Min's brow furrowed. "I didn't kill anyone when I stole, that was even against the Guild laws."

"Sure, but if you do it right feeding doesn't kill anyone either," Serana replied, "and you stole to survive, and that's why we feed." She hoped that such a comparison would lessen the redguard's guilt over what they did. The Forsworn had been easier than before, but she could still see the guilt racking Yosa'Min's mind afterwards. One step at a time, she reminded herself.

Yosa'Min's lips were thin, orange burning eyes narrowed. "It's not inherently the same. Stealing isn't as bad as taking someone's blood. I only took enough, never more than I needed."

Serana turned on her heels, a small sneer on her face. "Survival doesn't justify sin right?"

"Oh!" She gritted, "Right now, I really don't like you." Yosa'Min's hands had balled into fists. She didn't like being implied a hypocrite, especially when she could see the truth behind the other words. "I'll state it again, it isn't the same thing!"

"But it is."

"We're done with this conversation," Yosa'Min said as she stomped past her, feet reaching the beach now. They could see the shroud of Castle Volkihar, even in the dark, a lone figure that was terrifying unsettling even to the pair. They could also see a boat, sails tied down and ropes keeping the sailboat tethered to some trees. There was a camp set up besides it, in the mouth of a cave they could see into from where they stood, clearly the remains of some pair resting there before moving off. They'd be returning soon if either of them were to be the judge. Yosa'Min frowned as she smelled something terribly familiar, and it took all her might not to walk towards it. Serana was eyeballing it warily, and so she followed suit.

"Let's get to the jetty," Serana said, taking her fledgling away from the boat swiftly, unaware of the two forms approaching from the other way.

"I see your tracking skills aren't as great as promised," Vex was hissing as the pair came trudging back to the sailboat. Mjoll grumbled under her breath something Vex couldn't quite catch, but it was easy to guess what words they were. "I get searching at night, but we've found nothing remotely vampiric. Only tracks on the road and that could be from anything or anyone."

"You're also not quite as good at tracking as promised," Mjoll said back. "We went all up and down that pass and nothing. The travelers we came across had no sign of vampiric enthrallment like you'd hoped either."

Vex, trying not to strangle the woman, looked out towards the Sea of Ghosts, taking a deep calming breath. It had been quite the struggle for the past day alone to work with Mjoll. Sure, she'd been around the woman for long periods of time before but just the two of them alone? Gods she had no idea what they were thinking. With luck, Lydia and Iona were doing better than she and Mjoll because thus far they'd turned up empty. "Four more days of this?" She muttered, glaring at the cloudy night sky. "It's so hard to do this because our target is a creature of the night, and will only move at night. And now, Lady Luck even has turned her cheek and we're left without a single shimmer of starlight to guide us."

"The one time you want to see the stars huh?"

Taking the remark in as good a nature as she could, Vex ignored Mjoll. She swept amber eyes across the horizon, not really knowing what she was looking for but certainly something. It was disheartening to think that Yosa'Min could just simply vanish into thin air, but this was Yosa'Min they were talking about. Recalling how she'd bought her faked death so easily by Mercer in the past, Vex balled her hands into fists. She'd failed her friend more times than she could count, and refused to let this be another. If she had to make sacrifices, had to work with the woman she loathed to no end, then she was willing. Iona and Lydia had been right about a few things, they'd have tougher battles to fight and they couldn't afford to be trying to not kill the other over the small things.

Instead, they'd focused on their mission at hand, and thankfully that had only left time for snarky remarks when they'd returned to camp. Spending nights traveling up and down the mountains and shoreline and the evening and early morning were spent trying to find people to question and tracks from before. All in all, they were both exhausted already. Sleeping on the mats they'd set up in a cave wasn't doing them much good for their mood, and more often then not the fire would die out before they'd found more usable firewood, as most easier to find pieces were drenched in water. They'd been sleeping mostly during the day, seeing as they were looking for vampires, but for some reason that night everything seemed to go amiss and it was nearly sunrise now with no trail or leads.

Vex sighed, and ran a hand through her platinum hair, only to pull it back with disgust at how dirty it had become out here beyond the city walls. Even living in a sewer her hair was never this dirty, though perhaps it did stink. Eventually, as she looked more westward, she spotted a pair of fast fleeing forms. Something in her gut told her to move, and having learned to listen to instincts, she started running without a word to Mjoll after them. Shouting in confusion, the Lioness pursued.

The forms had a massive lead on her, but Vex wasn't going to let that dissuade her. They might have been vampires, after all who moved so swiftly in the dark? If they were vampires, there was a chance they'd know or have heard of something related to Yosa'Min. Of course, they'd probably be unwilling to give such information up easily and so the imperial clutched her hands around the hilts of her daggers. Sand crunched between her swift steps, sending little rocks sailing behind her. The Nightingale's lungs started to burn, weaving down the coast as the forms seemed to slow down, and moved out towards the sea.

Mjoll, who was lagging behind thanks to her late start and armor, gave a heave behind her, slowly up as she found she couldn't keep pace with the dead sprint run. She jogged instead, holding the torch they'd used during the travel of the day in one hand. Vex had long since left its ring of light. She watched after her, terribly out of breath as the imperial streamed away. "By the Nine," she gulped down air, wishing she'd not traveled in that armor but it was there in case she'd need it. "How does she do it?"

Vex gritted her teeth, and spotted the pair of shapes unmooring a boat perhaps, before floating out towards the giant expanse of water. What they could possibly be doing was an utter mystery to Vex aside from traveling. She got to where the shapes had been, standing on a broken down wooden structure that jutted into the water just enough to keep a rowboat besides it. With narrowed amber eyes, Vex tried to discern the shape of bodies, but found nothing of use. Suddenly, a flash of burning eyes was upon her, and then gone.

Breath stolen with terror and realization, Vex felt her knees buckle and it took all her might not to just fall over then and there. She'd been hoping but she hadn't actually expected it to be a vampire. The stray thought that it was her vampire even crossed her mind, and Vex sat herself down at the edge of the jetty, watching the vampires float across towards what might have been a gaping black structure across the Sea some distance. They'd noticed it when they'd first exited the cave post-storm, but thought it just another ruins like the ancient nords, and so neither of them thought much of it.

But if vampires were living there...

Mjoll at last caught up, shaking her head as she struggled to regain her composure. "What in Oblivion was that?" She demanded. "You took off! I thought there might have been something causing it or whatever, but you're just sitting here!" She accused, wanting to sit down herself. Vex's gaze remained on the horizon, watching the black dot get smaller and smaller with every passing second.

"We've had our first sighting," Vex said with a slowly growing grin, "I saw their eyes. And tomorrow night we'll see the rest of them."

"We come back here before dusk?" Suggested Mjoll, catching along as she looked out as well. She couldn't see anything but dark waters. "And just wait?"

"In the brush." Vex pointed behind them, pulling up one dagger so that it reflected the small bit of light there was. "We'll wait there, and then ambush the next vampire we see."