Chapter 19: Lie to Me

The sun had already set, its orange glow still lingered on the horizon. Having retrieved and donned most of their items, the Dunmer stepped out of the cave, finally spotting the origin of the whispers they had heard a moment before reaching the exit.

The Nord mother was still there, crouching in front of her son, softly talking to him to calm him down. As she noticed the heavy steel plate boots behind her, she turned and stood up, keeping hold of her son's hand. "I'm sorry...", she said, "Do you know where we are?"

Nephiah let the two vampire corpses she was dragging drop.

Brelyna stepped closer to them. "Well? Where do you want to go?"

"Rorikstead?"

"Ok? That's about a half day's journey that way." She pointed to the north-west.

"Could you...", the mother hesitantly said after a moment, "Could you take us there? We never leave the farm, Skyrim is a dangerous place..."

"Well?" Brelyna looked back at her warrior who stood motionlessly behind her. "It's a bit out of our way, but I think we can manage?"

Nephiah neither confirmed nor denied the notion,

Brelyna knew that to be a 'yes'. She looked back to the pair and smiled.

The mother sighed in relief. "Thank you... I was sure you had a good soul."

A column of smoke shot forth from the cave. It made its way in between the Dunmer, knocking them both off their feet, shot up into the air and came back down behind the Nords.

There the smoke compressed, revealing the shape of the Elder vampire, his skin burned all over. As soon as his form was solid, he grabbed the son and mother by the neck, then bit her throat and drained her dry, it was over very quickly.

Nephiah looked up in terror as she saw her chance at redemption disintegrate in front of her eyes. She jumped back to her feet and charged him, unsheathing her sword on the way. She instantly stopped her charge as the elder held the boy up in front of him, exposing his neck in a way that made it easy for him to bite.

Brelyna had raised her hands to fire but didn't have a clear shot, the boy would burn just as badly as the vampire would. She looked at Nephiah, trying to figure out what to do. By the looks of it, her warrior wasn't sure either.

The Elder's skin began to regenerate from the fresh infusion of blood. "Children's blood.", he began to speak "I must admit, I got a bit addicted back in the day. Nothing quite as pure, quite as energizing."

Nephiah took a step closer but stopped again as he lifted the boy closer to his mouth in response.

He noticed the fear in her eyes with sadistic joy. He wanted to see more of it, he couldn't help himself. He bit down and violently moved his head back, ripping out part of the boy's neck.

"Nonono...! Brelyna charged a fire ball, ready to release.

Nephiah however left her offensive stance and lowered her sword as a tear fell out of her shocked eyes.

Brelyna nervously looked at her and back at the Elder, scared she'd have to fight him alone.

The Elder began to regenerate even faster, he let the boy drop to the ground. He growled loudly as he transformed back into the winged monster. His growl was answered by a scream, so full of pain and anger, it sent chills down Brelyna's spine.

The scream was still leaving her lungs as Nephiah began to charge the monster, implanting her sword in its chest as she arrived. The blade didn't seem to cause the monster more than discomfort as it grabbed her with both talons, spread its leathery wings and lifted up off the ground. Brelyna began to shoot balls of fire at it but they were easy to evade for a creature in flight.

It was moving fast, left to right, right to left, up and down.

Nephiah was pounding both her fists down at the giant claws that held her, giving off short screams with every hit.

The monster smiled at her with blood red teeth. Left to right, right to left, up and down, it evaded incoming fire with every move. It opened its jaws and moved its prey closer. But before biting down it noticed its movement had found resistance.

Nephiah had grabbed the fangs on its upper jaw as they had gotten close enough.

The creature bit down but the steel plate was too tough to penetrate. She screamed again in pain, the emotion increasing her power, as she began to pull its teeth apart.

It gave off a loud and deep roar as its fangs were ripped from its skull, its flight patterns becoming uncontrolled. It let go of Nephiah but she wasn't ready to be let go.

As she fell, she caught its foot and held on as hard as she could, the momentum of rapid course changes violently swinging her around. Trying to lose its passenger, the creature drove to the ground, flying so low that Nephiah crashed into the earth. But she still didn't lose her grip. As she was dragged across the rough tundra, digging up clouds of dirt as they went, she began to grab its lower leg, then its thigh, slowly working her way up to the torso. The creature took off to move high up into the sky. She grabbed the wings by their root, digging her knees into its back. Again she screamed as she began to pull.

They had moved to an altitude where Brelyna couldn't make them out against the dark blue night's sky. She nervously looked up to where she last saw them. She heard her love scream yet again, a scream that was joined by the creature's pained roar shortly after.

The creature's wings landed on the ground left and right of her in short succession, giving off dull impact noises. Shortly after a louder, heavier impact was heard not far in the distance.

She ran towards it.

The noises of metal hitting flesh accompanied by Nephiah's short agonized screams let her know what she would find even before she saw them. The monster was dead. Nephiah kneeled over its mutilated corpse, pounding down on its head until it cracked open. But even then she didn't stop. Her eyes were closed, her mind was burning, tears streamed down her face uncontrollably.

Brelyna came to a halt a bit away from her, she couldn't interfere.

Eventually Nephiah wasn't hitting a head any more but rather grinding pieces of bone into the earth. Her strikes slowed down, her power left her, she stopped. She stood up and quickly walked a few meters without direction, then back to where she landed. She gave off another scream, this time no anger, just pain. She ripped the dripping wet steel gloves off her hands and ran back to the cave, Brelyna instantly followed.

Once there, her eyes found the boy, she stepped over to him and fell to her knees. And there she froze, her face void of any expression other than the lines her tears had carved into the dirt on her cheeks.

Brelyna slowly stepped up behind her. "Nephiah?", she said softly, "We... we have a plan, remember?" She didn't know what to say. She knew that if nothing else, her desire for retribution was something to keep her going. She stepped in front of her and crouched down. "Nephiah? Look at me?"

Nephiah remained frozen, her mind in an endless loop between the image in front of her and that of another boy with an opened throat.

Rattling in the bushes close by sent Brelyna back to her feet. She moved her hands back and got ready do release another magical projectile.

The dark shape revealed itself to be a familiar face. "M'aiq?" Brelyna let the magic dissipate without firing. The cat slowly stepped closer with raised hands. "What in Oblivion are you doing here?!"

He pointed at a patch of tundra cotton that had caught fire from one of her spells.

"M'aiq was seeking the warmth of a fire..."

"...in this cold night?" Brelyna interrupted him, anger in her voice. "You say you know a lot, how come you don't know how to light a fire!"

She stepped between him and Nephiah who still hadn't moved. She couldn't believe the bad timing of his showing up.

"Maybe M'aiq also seeks the company found around other people's fires.", he said lowering his arms.

Brelyna sighed and put a hand to her temple. "I'm sorry. It's just... This isn't the best time for company."

He leaned to his side to get a closer look at the paralyzed warrior kneeling on the ground. Then he looked back at the mage.

"Would you mind? This isn't a good time.", Brelyna said with frustration.

"Yes...", he answered "But if you would allow M'aiq a word of wisdom..."

"No!", Brelyna interrupted him again. "You aren't wise, you're just spewing about random things! And you're either wrong or you're lying!"

He paused. "Is that so.", he replied calmly.

"Yes! You said I wouldn't find what I wanted but I did! And so did she!"

He looked at Nephiah who had slowly turned her head to look at him.

"Did you?"

Brelyna gave off a short laugh.

"So you are still busy digging graves.", he said, looking Nephiah in the eye. As soon as the words registered in her, she furiously jumped up, rushed him and grabbed him by the collar. The expression on his face showed he regretted having said that in that particular moment. "M'aiq is sorry." She dragged him over to the dead boy and fell to her knees again, pulling him down with her.

"Nephiah!", Brelyna yelled, fearing she would get violent again. She rushed over and put a hand on her shoulder, one on M'aiq's, ready to try to push them apart if need be.

"Tell me...", Nephiah suddenly said with a soft, quivering voice. "Tell me this is not how it will always be."

M'aiq looked deeply into her agony filled eyes.

"Tell me it will be ok... Do what you do... and lie...".

Brelyna slowly sat down. Strength left her at the sound of so much hopelessness coming from her love. "Nephiah..."

"TELL ME!" She shook him as the pain flared up in her more intensely.

"M'aiq can tell you this.", he began to speak. "There is only one force strong enough to quell that fire in you. But this... you already know."

She let go of him and fell from kneeling to sitting, her hands dropped onto her knees. "Yes..." She exhaled audibly and closed her eyes.

Brelyna put a hand on hers, gently stroking her with her thumb, she didn't react.

The cat looked at the mage that was trying to comfort her love and back at the warrior that was unable to feel comfort. "Maybe you don't know."

After a moment of pondering, he stood up and began to walk into the darkness of the night. "M'aiq shall leave you now. Who knows, maybe we meet again.", he said without looking back.

Brelyna watched him as he left. "You could have just lied!", she yelled after him as he disappeared. She looked back at Nephiah who was trying her best to take deep breaths. "Come on." She eventually said, trying to sound confident. "We have things to do."

She whistled loudly, it didn't take long for Sparks to come running. She placed a quick kiss on her hand and stood up to greet the horse. "I am sorry, Sparks, we are going to have a bit of a load." She sighed and walked to the cave entrance. She grabbed one of the vampire corpses that Nephiah left there and began to drag it to the horse. She made a few exertion noises as she went. "Those are heavier than they look!", she said towards Nephiah who's eyes were still closed.

Upon arriving at the horse, she let it drop and promptly moved back to the cave to get the other one. She whiped a tear away before grabbing it, sniffed as she pulled it backwards. Her powerlessness against her love's suffering had gotten to her, this was the only thing she could do. Drag dead vampires through the dirt.

The horse lowered its back to accommodate Brelyna. She leaned the corpse's back against its side and took hold of its front to try and push it up and across the horse. Half way there, she lost hold of it, it plummeted back down. "Damnit!"

She tried again, it slipped out of her hands again. She began to give off faint sobs, realizing that she couldn't even do that for her. "Come. ON!" She grabbed it again, exhaustion taking hold in her. She couldn't lift it. She fell to her knees, lowered her head and sniffed again.

Two more hands took hold of the vampire. She looked to her right to see Nephiah hurling the corpse across the horse in one quick move. She stood up and took a step back as the second vampire was stowed away in a similar fashion. Nephiah then looked at her out of the corner of her eye.

"Why do it.", she faintly said, a heavy sadness in her voice. "Why give me hope where there is none." She turned to her mage who in this moment didn't have an answer. "Hope is the cruelest form of torture... hurts more than this..." She ran a finger along the scar on her cheek.

Brelyna's knees were shaking, she wanted to sit down again. She wished to Azura to share some wisdom to give to her love. But she had none. Eventually she stepped close to her and took both her hands. She lowered her head until their foreheads leaned on each other. "This is not how it will always be...", she whispered. "It will be ok..."

Nephiah gave off a short whimper as she recognized the lie the cat failed to tell. As she recognized how Brelyna would say it when nobody else would. Even though it wasn't true. "Whoever comes...", she said barely audibly.

Brelyna whispered back "...whoever comes."