Leaving the inn the next morning, I head towards a little boat moored near a house in the north of the town. At that house, a robed woman is arguing with a man standing on the porch in a very old red robe.
"Your ancestors wouldn't want this, Silus!" The woman says. Ah, that's right – the Mythic Dawn Museum is in Dawnstar. This must be it.
"Why should I hide from it? This is my family's legacy!" Silus cries.
"It's the past! Dead oaths on dead lips. Let it stay there!"
"The museum is opening, Madena." The woman sighs and strides past me into town. I'll check out the museum later; right now I have a job to do. I approach the man sat on the edge of the boat.
"I can take you to any port on the coast." Boasts the fellow. "Name's Harlaug."
"I'd like to hire your boat."
"Where are you headed?"
"An island near the border to High Rock." At the mention of this, Harlaug recoils.
"The one with the ruined castle? Don't you know that place is cursed? Even seasoned sailors steer around that place."
"I need to go there anyway." I pull out a large handful of coins.
"I'll take you as far as I can," Harlaug says to the shiny fistful. "but I'm not hanging around and it's gonna cost you extra."
I count out 500 coins, tuck them into a purse and hand it over. "Take me near the castle to the west."
We climb into the boat and settle down for a long ride. I must still be kind of tired, because the gentle rocking of the boat as Harlaug takes it along the coast lulls me to sleep.
When I wake, we're pulling in alongside an old jetty, with half the timbers rotted away and fallen into the icy water. On the other side, another boat sits, with a large puddle of water sitting in the bottom. No sooner have we climbed out of Harlaug's boat than he is pulling on the oars and heading back to Dawnstar.
Looking along the old jetty, I can see in the distance a large island with a huge castle looming atop it. Very impressive – and spooky.
Fishing the oars out of the icy puddle, I slide them into their sockets and sit in the boat. The wood seems solid enough – it only sags a little under my weight. Serana sits opposite me on the other seat, and I pull on the oars, dragging us away from the wooded coastline and the towering cliffs beyond. I also have an excellent view of an old fort, with golden-armoured figures striding along the walls. They can only be Thalmor.
I'm not used to rowing, and being unable to see where we're going. With a thump that nearly throws us from our seats, the boat grates up on the shore of the island. Serana leaps out, and hardly waits for me to disembark before tugging the little boat further up the beach.
With the boat secure, I head up the gargoyle-lined ramp toward the castle gate.
"Hey, so… before we go in there…" Serana says behind me.
"What is it?"
"I wanted to thank you for getting me this far. But after we get in there, I'm going to go my own way for a while. I think… I know your friends would probably want to kill everything in here. I'm hoping you can show some more control than that. Once we're inside, just keep quiet for a bit. Let me take the lead." With that, she passes me and heads up the ramp towards the rising portcullis and the great wooden door. I follow her inside, and – for some reason – am the first person noticed by the High Elven vampire hanging around the doorway into the great hall.
"How dare you trespass here!" he cries, then notices my dark-haired companion. "Wait… Serana? Is that truly you? I cannot believe my eyes!" He heads onto the balcony of the stairs down into the great hall. "My lord!" He calls. "Everyone! Serana has returned!"
"I guess I'm expected." Serana murmurs, then heads down the stairs towards the richly dressed man waiting between the long, bloody banquet tables. This whole set-up is making me incredibly uneasy, but I swallow my fears – I've faced worse – and follow.
"My long lost daughter returns at last. I trust you have my Elder Scroll?"
I knew I'd seen the case she had on her back somewhere before! I'd been so distracted by my recent re-discoveries that I'd completely forgotten about the one hidden deep in my bag.
"After all these years that's the first thing you ask me?" Serana replies. "Yes, I have the Scroll."
"Of course I'm delighted to see you, my daughter." Her father cries. Even for a vampire, there is something not quite right with this man. "Must I really say the words aloud? Ah, if only your traitor mother were here – I would let her watch this reunion before putting her head on a spike." He turns to me, his golden eyes boring into my solitary red one. I feel like he can see everything that I am through it. "Now tell me, who is this stranger you have brought into our hall?"
"This is my saviour; the one who freed me." Serana says.
"For my daughter's safe return, you have my gratitude." He says to me. "Tell me, what is your name?"
"Lethandhrel." I find myself responding before I can stop myself. This one is far more dangerous than any of the others I've ever encountered. "Who are you?"
"I am Harkon, lord of this court. By now, my daughter will have told you what we are."
"You are vampires." I fake confidence. I don't think I have ever been so un-nerved since… since Helgen!
"Not just vampires." Harkon says proudly. "We are among the oldest and most powerful vampires in Skyrim. For centuries we lived here, far from the cares of the world. All that ended when my wife betrayed me and stole away that which I valued most." Somehow, I don't think he refers to his daughter.
"What happens now?"
"You have done me a great service, and now you must be rewarded. There is but one gift I can give that is equal in value to the Elder Scroll and my daughter. I offer you my blood – take it and you will walk as a lion among sheep. Men will tremble at your approach and you will never fear death again."
This… is quite tempting – to my old self. Once upon a time I would have leapt on his offer; the more power for me, the better. But no more. That is no longer who I am!
"And if I refuse your gift?"
"Then you will be prey, like all mortals. I will spare your life this once, but you will be banished from this hall. Perhaps you still need convincing? Behold the power!" With a painful-sounding crunch, he explodes into a tall, blue-grey skinned creature, with tattered wings and a permanent angry grimace. The light of the candles on the table and the fires of the braziers glints off of the golden chest-plate and the gems on the band in his grey hair.
"This is the power that I offer!" Harkon cries, while somehow not moving his lips. "Now make your choice."
"I don't want to become a vampire. I refuse your gift."
"So be it! You are prey, like all mortals. I banish you!" He casts a blue spell at me, and everything goes black.
When it clears, I find I am standing a few meters up the shore from the boat. Without even looking back, despite my worries about Serana – who seems a whole lot more human than her father – I push the boat into the waves and climb in.
Reaching the mainland, I pause after securing the boat to take in my surroundings. I see no way of getting up the cliff, so I set off east-south-eastwards past the fort, hoping I can find a road or even just a little track. A little way into the trees beyond the fort, I am attacked by a pair of wolves, who barely last seconds against my crossbow, which I will admit was a silly choice of weapon for close combat, but it was the first weapon I laid my hands on.
As I wander through the snowy pine trees, I contemplate all the vampire lore I'd heard and read over the years – namely 'Immortal Blood', and remember stories of the Volkihar clan of Skyrim. They can only be the vampires I'd just encountered, so I get out my map and mark the castle I'd just had the pleasure of visiting as Castle Volkihar. Tucking the map into my bag, I stop as an icicle blasts into the ground mere inches from my feet. Looking up, I spot a – I suppose rugged would be a nice way of putting it – woman standing in the shadow of a toppled tower launching another icicle my way. Leaping to my right, I pull out my crossbow again and launch a bolt in her direction, hitting her in the chest and killing her in one blow.
Searching through the toppled ruins, marked by an ancient sign as Widow's Watch, I find a single chest buried under the fallen furniture of the room, but all it contains is a handful of gold and a potion, so it almost wasn't worth the effort of picking the lock. Sliding out of the door, I return to the icy woods and continue my journey eastwards, eventually finding a road twisting down from the cliffs. I follow it, still travelling eastwards, and continue as it curves south then west, and I am soon in a place I recognise. The road continues along over the arched wall covering the opening of what must be an underground harbour or something. Instead, I turn into a little alcove and pass through a wooden door, up a spiral staircase and into the city of Solitude through a gate at the bottom of the famous windmill.
Closing the gate behind me, I hear a ruckus at the main gate, and following the noise, I discover that a vampire is using the darkness of the recently fallen night to attack the city. One old warrior is already crouching injured on the road, and another dashes past me. There are no guards to be seen, so I kill the solitary vampire then head into the inn.
After renting a room, I pass the bard, who is singing a new song I haven't heard before, and head up the stairs into my room. It's late, so I unbuckle the more solid pieces of armour I wear and curl up on the bed.