Chapter 9 – Cursed
"Honour to you, my thane" – Quote, Housecarl of the Dragonborn
"Oh no" Serana's voice broke as she strode into the fresh air.
Tai's eyes flashed across the garden quickly as Serana walked to a strange sun dial, a circle of the moon cycle on its outer circle. The courtyard was stone, or had been stone once when the past had been kinder. The great doors to the hall were covered in rubble, an archway completely brought down by a lord vampire's wrath. The upper balcony, once beautiful and alive now showed how time could affect the strongest substance, the strongest stone. It showed through its crumbling, the dead plants growing over the fine once glowing white stone.
"This use to lead to the great hall. I guess my father tore it down, couldn't stand any memory of my mother" Serana sighed, standing before the once great door.
Tai gently placed his hand on her shoulder as he stared up into the beautiful stars and the midnight sky. The moon shone bright through the clouds as Tai flinched, his grip tightening. Even with control moonlight still summoned the animal inside him to rage, to roar, to love and to kill.
"Serana" he growled, the wolf's depth rumbling. She seemed to sense him because she looked to him horrified; he shuddered nervously with the struggle beginning to build.
"If you change, can you control it?" Serana's voice was so vulnerable, as a pose to her usual confidence. Tai nodded, unable to control a human voice in a body so weak. Not suited to the everlasting hunt.
"Then change" Serana whispered, stepping onto the stairs as Tai half stalked her, half stared.
The black mist fell off him as he writhed, the change taking longer than usual. His eyes stayed pinned on Serana as they too changed to the glowing yellow his wolf took on. Serana seemed captivated as his full form exploded from his remaining skin with a huge roar. To Tai, the air seemed red for a moment as blood rushed from his eyes down his face. Then it was silent.
"Tai can you still understand? Can you talk?" Serana was praying he was in control.
"Hoooooww owwww hoooolllllllllllll" Tai replied. Serana shook her head.
"I can't understand you Tai"
"That's because you're not listening ice brain" Tai howled again, but somehow Serana understood him. She playfully punched his long arm, earning a short yelp from Tai.
"Not funny Tai" she hissed. Tai panted, sticking his long pink tongue out.
"If I didn't have this massive jaw I would be laughing" Tai woofed like a dog, despite his huge sized paws and body in comparison to Serana and even his usual size Tai still had a very simular tone to his own voice on that woof. Serana continued walking, her mood suddenly dropping as she stared into a dead garden. Tai whined.
"My mother and I use to harvest all our alchemy ingredients from this garden. It was beautiful. Do you know how beautiful something can be when tended by a master for hundreds of years?" Serana dropped her head, chin closer to her chest instead of her usual confident upwards.
Tai gently placed his paw on her back, instantly feeling her tense as she spun away.
"Keep your hands off my royal behind Tai"
"I was placing my paw on your back, unfortunately I have large paws" Tai raised his paw to show her the sheer size. Serana nervously wrapped her entire hand around one finger.
She didn't even smile as Tai hung his tongue out again. Tai woofed then licked Serana down her ears; she cringed, guarding her ears with her shoulders. This time Serana cracked a smile before scratching Tai behind the ear. Tai was shocked to find he didn't mind acting like a puppy, despite he would crush someone if he sat in their lap. It was actually not a bad experience, been petted.
"Wait a minute. There's something strange about the moon dial. Some plates are missing and its askew" Serana strode to the strange dial, Tai dropped to his paws and trotted quietly behind Serana, his nose at her hand.
Tai sniffed, a metallic scent on the air as he loped to the pond, finding a plate. Holding it in his teeth he loped to the garden again, finding a second plate. In his teeth again Tai loped up the stairs, finding a third plate. Tai growled as he held all three plates in his mouth, trotting like a proud stallion back to the laughing Serana. Tai dropped them at her feet, his hind hitting the ground as he wagged his large tail.
"Good boy" Serana laughed staring at the plates. Tai groaned as he collapsed, turning back into his naked human form. Serana averted her eyes as Tai groaned, picking up his pack and rummaging through.
Serana peeked over her shoulder as Tai turned away, his entire back curled over his pack. His arm was folded consciously over the frostbite spider bite. Serana's eyes started at the terrible brand at his neck, hidden mostly behind his hair. Her eyes continued down his slightly pale shoulders, the ripples of them almost captivating. She continued down his back, the scar from his stabbing harsh to her eyes for reasons she didn't care to tell anyone including Tai. Her eyes followed down to his tail bone, down the back of his thick legs to his strong calves.
Tai triumphantly pulled free his underpants and his armour. Working swiftly he clad himself in the steel he had recently bought, he seemed thrilled but weak to it. Serana waited until he had pulled his pants on to walk forwards and begin doing the leather straps down his legs up, Tai stared down at her as she grinned.
"I can't have my knight in shining armour looking poorly for my mother" Serana grinned at the slowly fading Tai. She still hadn't noticed the harsh bite down his side.
Once armoured up Tai smiled his thanks to Serana. His eyes staring at the plates as he and Serana both took one. Tai mumbled something placing the plate in its rightful place. They both stared at the final plate, a crescent moon as they placed it in its rightful place. The dial begun to spin.
"Wow. Very clever mother, very clever. This is just like my mother, hiding right under my father's nose. She wasn't a coward. You know she never use to let me down here. Made me leave, saying how she didn't have time to baby me" Serana shook her head looking down the stairs.
"I've never even been to this part of the castle before but I'll bet it runs right under the courtyard into the old ruined tower"
"After you" Tai spoke quietly as he placed his hand between her shoulder blades, guiding her forwards gently down the stairs. She took a step then looked nervously at Tai.
"Together?" she asked nervously. Tai stared at her.
"It's your moment Serana, its ok. Grasp it" he whispered to her, she smiled.
"Who's here to view it?"
"I am" Tai's reply earned a smile from Serana as she continued down the stairs to an old door.
Once inside they travelled through a ruined tower, firstly fighting off several skeletons. Serana stepped up to the challenge, turning into a warrior unlike Tai had ever seen with both magic and dagger. In the fight Tai felt the venom taxing him; Serana had been gashed as he finished off the final skeleton with a shout.
"Show me that" Tai ordered, already holding a white bandage as Serana tilted her arm to show the small but deep gash. Tai placed the bandage over it, Serana winced.
"What is your family like?" Tai asked quietly. Serana stared at the wound.
"My father you've met, I think you've gathered he's not a nice person even by vampire standards. My mother is almost as unstable as he is, when we gave ourselves to Molag Bal things got icy between them. Father found the prophecy and that was it, he was obsessed with completing it and mother obsessed with stopping him. I was lost in the middle. Like Bal said…Power takes precedence" Serana winced as Tai gently knotted the bandage, his eyes soft as he whispered.
"It sounds like you never really had a family" Tai sighed. Serana didn't reply, instead they kept moving.
Tai held Serana back as he drew his bow, firing one arrow quickly ahead. A Gargoyle exploded from its stone slumber with a growl; Tai fired the second arrow into the Gargoyle's eye. It fell dead.
"That was too easy" Tai complained. He then strode to where the Gargoyle had erupted from, staring at the crushed skeletons before pulling a chain. The gate a few metres away opened. Tai grinned triumphantly.
He and Serana ducked under a faller pillar, eyes falling a moment too late upon a Gargoyle. It exploded, the high pitched shriek forcing Tai to cover his ears as he bumped Serana to the side, ducking the Gargoyle's leap. Its head bounced off the pillar, unfortunately landing on Tai.
Tai gripped the creature around the neck, his legs around its waist as Serana aimed her dagger. With a high pitched frightened yelp she drove the dagger expertly through the creatures chest, then sliced through its gut with an art Tai believed lost to most of the world. The art of death. Her knife the brush, the creature her canvas and its blood her paint. He released his grip and shoved the beast off him, staring at Serana who smiled.
"I still know how to fight" she laughed at the dumbfounded Tai.
"More like you know how to kill" Tai struggled to his feet as Serana grinned, walking to another metal gate and kicking it. Tai blinked. She could have spared him all the chain pulling and levering if she had just kicked the gates? God this woman was driving Tai crazy.
They walked through the gate, finding themselves in another dining area filled with skeletons. They quickly fought through the creatures, Serana again doing most of the work as Tai stayed behind, weakly waving his sword around.
They continued on, until they came to a set of huge doors. Tai pushed them open weakly as Serana strode ahead, her eyes landing on six gargoyle statues. Tai pushed his finger to his lips in a silent shh then begun to sneak past the sleeping Gargoyles. His toes missed the crunching dust; he avoided knocking the silver bowels and continued onwards to a fireplace like wall.
"I don't think we are at the top yet. Maybe this is a secret passage" Serana's voice was low as Tai touched a candle holder. It fell sidewards, causing the wall to slide down, revealing the secret passage. Tai coughed at the dust, and then cursed at the explosion behind hm.
"Through now, hurry" Tai pushed Serana through and crept under himself as the Gargoyle's glared at each other, then attacked. The wall closed as Tai and Serana looked horrified.
They continued walking up a set of curling corridors, messy corridors. Finally they came to a door, Tai pushed it open quietly, Serana gasped.
The first thing that shocked Tai was the room was huge. Several raised platforms, walls of ingredients and soul gems. His eyes fell on dragon bones, full skeletons against a minor wall, leading into a library of sorts. What really caught Tai's attention as he walked was a circle, rings and rings of a circle sinking slightly into the ground.
"Look at this place, this has to be it. I knew she was deep into necromancy, I mean, she taught me everything I know… But I had no idea she had a set up like this" Serana walked to the skeletons, Tai in tow.
"I mean look at this, she must have spent years collecting these components" her eyes turned to the circle.
"And what's this thing? I'm not sure about this circle but it's obviously something. See if you can find my mother's journal" Serana was now ordering. Tai offered her a book after a few moments, hunting the library.
"This it?" he asked staring at the red bound leather book. Its old dragon patterns sticking out as Serana took the book slowly from his hands, her own trembling.
"This is it. We need to find some fine ground bone meal, soul gem shards and purified void salts… The last ingredient we can't get though, her blood. If we could get it we wouldn't be here" Serana continued to curse like a common woman from Rifton. Tai blinked his disapproval before suggesting something.
"Maybe we can use your blood… You are her daughter"
"Not bad Tai, we have to hope that's good enough though… Mistakes with these kinds of things tend to be…. Gruesome. Find the ingredients" Serana smiled as Tai looked horrified.
"Explain to me about this… Portal. Where does it lead?"
"The Soul Cairn"
"What is this Soul Cairn?" Tai asked as he started looking around the room. Serana sighed.
"The Soul Cairn is a slither of Oblivion, realm of the Deadra. It's ruled by the Ideal Masters, who are hungry for souls. My mother had a theory, when a soul gem is used the soul isn't gone it's sent to the Soul Cairn… Well, the black soul gems anyway" Serana continued explaining onwards as Tai came to her side, ingredients in hand.
"Ok. Place them in that silver vessel over there" Serana had by then journeyed up the stairs to a un walled platform, a silver vessel sitting to one corner. Tai obeyed, dumping the ingredients unceremoniously into the vessel. Serana looked unimpressed as she walked over.
"Are you ready? I don't know what this thing will do when I add my blood"
"Wait. Before we go any further what are you going to do if we find your mother?" Tai's curiosity exploded. Serana stared.
"I've been asking myself that since I returned to the castle. She was so sure about what we did to my father; I couldn't help but go along with her… I didn't think of the cost" Serana sighed.
"It sounds like she did it all for your sake Serana" Tai shook Serana who smiled.
"Possibly. I guess even a vampire mother is still a mother. She worried about me, about all of us but she wanted to get me away from my father before he really went over the edge" Serana walked to the vessel.
"We should go. I'm sorry Tai; I didn't expect anyone to care how I feel about her… Thank you" Serana finished as Tai stared at her.
Serana lowered her fangs to her wrist and bit down hard, he saw her wince as the blood trickled freely, a crimson crusade of blood into the ingredients. There was a humongous rumble as the circles twisted and aligned, then levelled up closer and closer to Tai and Serana as stairs.
"By the blood of my ancestors, she did it! She made a portal to the Soul Cairn" Serana exclaimed.
Tai was exited as he strode confidently down the stairs towards the purple flames, like the ones that had been around Serana's tomb. However when he hit the flames he felt something destroying him from the inside out. Tai gasped as he stumbled back; falling to hit his head on the stairs he had just descended.
20 Years Ago
Tai groaned under the weight of his pick axe, the lashes down his back felt like flames as another whip lashed him. By now the stubborn Tai had lost his mind, the darkness of the mines had been with him since he had been caught stealing food, at the age of six. That was two years ago and he had not seen the sun.
"Dig boy" A Orc in a mask demanded. Tai glared as he dropped the pick axe.
"Make me goat breath!"
"Brand him" The Orc didn't even laugh as he dragged the little boy, kicking and biting towards the forge their metals were melted and hammered into weapons in.
Tai was pushed to his knees, a dagger was torn through his lengthy hair, hacking it short; an obvious sign of a slave, of a prisoner. Tai grunted against his shackles as the Orc stood on it, the old blacksmith looking sadly at the boy as he pulled a white hot poker from the coals. Tai struggled harder, the chains beginning to bend around his bleeding wrist. The Orc snatched the poker, placing the metal on Tai's neck and pushing. Tai screamed, his voice echoing throughout the mine as the earth begun to rumble. There was going to be an earth quake, there was going to be a cave in. Death was inevitable.
Now
"Are you alright? That looked painful" Serana was by Tai's side, pulling him to the top of the stairs. Tai coughed.
"It was. What was that?" Tai stumbled to his feet, Serana looked nervous for him.
"Now that I think about it I should have expected that… Sorry"
"It's fine. You didn't have time to warn me. What was that?" Tai replied, Serana shook her head.
"It's hard to describe, the Soul Cairn is well… Hungry for lack of a better word. It's trying to take your life essence as payment" Serana's explanation made Tai feel sick to his stomach.
"In other words there's no way in?"
"There might be, but I don't think you'll like it. Vampires aren't counted among the living. I could probably go through there without a problem" Tai could see Serana's face tensing up; his own throat was closed as he struggled the words out.
"Are you saying I have to become a vampire?"
"Not your first choice, I'd guess"
"There has to be another way Serana!"
"Maybe… We could just "pay the toll" another way. It wants a soul so we'll give it one. Yours" Serana seemed a little distressed about this, Tai couldn't understand why though. She wasn't the one who had to die.
"Wouldn't that… you know… Kill me?" His voice was higher pitched; Serana winced at the volume in her sensitive ears.
"My mother taught me a trick or two. I could partially soul trap you and offer that to the Ideal Masters, it might be enough to satisfy them… Might. It would make you a bit weaker traveling through the Soul Cairn though, but we might be able to fix that when we are inside… Maybe." Serana seemed very unsure of the options.
"You seem very unsure… Are those my only options? Death or possible death? You're a life saver Serana" Tai groaned.
"Tai I'm sorry. I wish I knew another way it would be easier for you. Just know that… Whatever path you chose, I won't think any less of you. Sometimes you just have to do what needs to be done, I know that better than anybody" Serana hung her head as Tai stared into the flames. His mind racing.
Tai was startled as Serana came up behind him, wrapping her arms around him as her chin rested on his shoulder as she too stared into the fire. Tai couldn't think clearly around her normally but this time his mind was firm, well set in his choice. Still it was a fair bit to weigh up, should he risk death or die for sure to live? If he was soul trapped would he be weaker forever? Could he endure the venom now weighing heavily on his system? Could he live as a vampire though? A vampire hunter infected? Tai believed he knew the answer as he turned his eyes to Serana. She silently walked away as Tai took a few breaths and started to rise; Serana's eyes widened intently.
"Have you made your decision?" Her voice was soft.
"I don't see any other way. Make me a vampire" Tai sighed. Serana's eyes betrayed her shock.
"Really? Are you sure? I mean, you'll be a vampire like me. You'll have to feed, sunlight won't help your complexion either" Serana looked troubled as Tai nodded.
"I'm sure Serana. We must have that scroll" Tai sighed.
"Tai, I'll make this painless as possible" Serana's voice was soft as she held Tai's hand reassuringly. He glanced at her with a disheartened smile.
"I know" he whispered, the sad smile still on his scruffy face slowly beginning to shine with fever.
"You know, it's very personal turning someone, very intimate" Serana trailed off.
"Then…I'm glad you're the one doing it" Tai sighed as Serana pulled him in closer to her. Her arms around his shoulders.
"I want you to know, I could never do anything to hurt you"
"I trust you completely"
With that Serana opened her mouth, her skin glazing a new kind of pale as her fangs drove into Tai's neck. Tai dropped quickly to his knees with a gasp Serana following, supporting Tai against her somewhat thin fangs. The burning was through his blood worse than any dragon's fire, worse than Serana's lick when he had believed himself infected. Tai didn't even register Serana had released her bite until she begun to whisper to him quietly, instructions on ignoring the pain as he felt more pulse through him. Forcing his conscious over the edge. Tai fell to the void he had served so faithfully, for the last time.