A heavy thudding against the door to the Inquisitor's quarters echoed through the tower. Dawn and Cullen groaned, roused from their sleep, rubbing their eyes ruefully. The Inquisitor peered out the window and saw it was still dark. Groaning, she pushed herself out of bed, wondering what emergency had transpired to wake her so early. Cullen scrambled to pull his clothes on, preparing himself for the worst emergency. It was not the first time either of them had been woken very early, and certainly wouldn't be the last.
Dawn pulled on a nightgown and robes over it, grabbing her staff, walking tiredly down the stairs. The door rattled again, urgently. She silently prepared herself for some sort of emergency when she reached the door. What she found was a panicky, wide-eyed Vidar on the other side. She frowned. "Vidar? What in the world-"
"It's my sister! She...she took off with Serana while I was busy on Companion business!" he cried. "They went to scope out Castle Volkihar to seek out Serana's mum! Divines only know where she is right now! Please, I need your help!" he begged desperately, eyes watering. Dawn rubbed her eyes and nodded.
"I'll help. Just give me a moment to get my armor on and I'll be off with you."
Vidar threw his arms around her in gratitude. "Thank you! I already woke up some of the others. We'll be waiting in the main hall! Please hurry!"
He ran downstairs and she closed the door, turning to see Cullen already in his daily armor, a sword at his hip and a shield on his back. He frowned. "What's going on?"
"It's Tanya. She went off with Serana by themselves on some mission to Volkihar castle. He needs help to find her." she clarified, going past him to dress herself. Cullen frowned.
"You can't go! You told me what that...that daedra told you!" he protested.
"I won't be gone long. Tanya needs my help." Dawn replied resolutely. Her love scowled.
"I can't...I don't want you to face vampires again! You've already been bitten by one once, it doesn't need to happen again!"
"We don't even know if they've reached the castle." Dawn approached her armor rack and began undressing. "We have to find them before it's too late."
"But..."
She turned to Cullen with a reassuring smile. "It's going to be okay. I'll be back within three days. I promise."
The commander sucked in a breath, looking miserable. "That's far too long."
There had been some grumbles, but Vidar managed to assemble a party of the Inquisitor, Cassandra, Varric, and Dorian. With no time to spare, they hurried into the other world and, using a portal stone in the teacher's quarters of the College of Winterhold, teleported themselves to Morthal. It was reaching five in the morning in Skyrim, and the sun had yet to come up.
The stone had placed them on the outskirts, close to the swamps, where Dorian was left groaning in disgust. "Ugh." he grumbled, covering his nose. "And here I thought Skyrim wouldn't have an area nearly as awful as the Fallow Mire."
"We don't have time to waste." Cassandra interrupted. "We need to find them, soon."
Varric cleared his throat, raising an eyebrow at Vidar. "Er...no offense, Wolf, but how are we going to track them down?"
"We know where they're going," Vidar pointed out, "and I have a way. All we need is something that belongs to her..." He opened his pack, pulling out a shirt that belonged to Tanya. "...and a dog to track her." He handed the cloth to the Inquisitor and set his bag down. He looked around for a good place to hide behind before realizing all the good trees were in the bog.
"Unless you're going to transform in the bog water, I don't think you have a place to hide." Varric pointed out. Dorian shuddered.
"I remember what happened when we took the siblings to the Fallow Mire." he groaned. Cassandra nodded in agreement, looking disgusted.
"You smelled worse than skunk for days on end after you fell in the swamp." the seeker pointed out. "Just do it on dry land. It's not like we haven't seen it before."
"It wasn't that bad!" Vidar protested, going red in the face. Dawn coughed and groaned.
"Yes, it was. If you'll recall, I made you sleep upwind of camp."
"Not that it helped much." Varric said, "I thought we'd never get the stench out of that sleeping roll. Just...go ahead and do it. We'll look the other way."
The werewolf shrugged and began to unbutton his clothes, the others looking away. He focused and within seconds, the transformation triggered by his will. Vidar did his best to bite back his screams of pain, though the sickening crack of bones accompanied by the other uncomfortable sounds of the transformation made the others wince and recoil. The pain grew worse always at the end, and he couldn't stop himself from unleashing a howl of agony at the end. Panting more loudly as a result of being in beast form, he turned to the others.
They had gone absolutely silent, staring at him awkwardly. He groaned; of course they were unable to look away. Varric, having seen the transformation for the first time, looked the most stunned. He was mouthing something to himself briefly before pausing when he saw the werewolf looking at him. He smiled coyly. The Inquisitor, Cassandra, and Dorian were still taken aback by the scene, though they pulled themselves together far quicker, the second time not leaving them reeling nearly as much.
Dawn held out the cloth and Vidar sniffed it, taking in its scent. His eyes widened and he turned in the direction across the bog water. "She's close. Very close...but something smells off."
"Perhaps it's Serana? You might smell her, too." Dawn pointed out. Vidar grunted.
"Let's get moving. Hopefully we can intercept them."
The werewolf charged to the northwest, running slower than he could but fast enough to still make the others struggle to keep up with him. He sped up as he smelled her closer and closer; she was near here. She had to be. But the pervasive smell of...something...mixed with her scent. Racing through the snow as they passed the bog, he could make out two figures growing closer in the distance with his vision as a werewolf.
They were silhouettes at this distance. The figures turned, eyes glinting a glowing gold as they took him in. The shorter silhouette seemed to panic as he drew near, and used supernatural speed to try to flee. He was caught off-guard by the darting shadows, and almost cried out in frustration, had the other not moved just as fast to catch her and bring her back.
"What was that?!" Dawn yelled. Vidar panted.
"Had to be Whirlwind Sprint!"
The werewolf slowed and skidded to a stop as he reached the figures. They were who he suspected; Serana and Tanya. But Tanya was avoiding eye-contact, turning away, refusing to show her face. Serana was frowning nervously as Vidar stopped, as well as the others, who tried to see the Dragonborn.
"Tanya?" Vidar asked gently.
"Go away!" she snapped, not looking at him. "Just...go back to Thedas. I'll meet you there and explain everything later."
"What? No, explain everything now." he blurted, frowning. "Sister, you nearly gave me a heart attack! What were you-"
"I can't...I can't say." Tanya whimpered. Dawn stepped forward, by her brother's side, regaining her breath.
"Tanya, what's wrong? Whatever it is, we can help you."
"Please," Dorian pleaded, "what's happened? Just tell us. It's going to be alright."
The mage hesitated and said nothing at all. Serana, knowing they were cornered, sighed and took up explanation. "We found my mother, and the Elder Scroll," she started.
"Serana, no, please..." Tanya begged, choked up. Serana sighed.
"It's too late. Let's get this over with." She made eye-contact with the others, who were left baffled. "She...was in a plane of Oblivion called the Soul Cairn, restricted only to the dead and undead. Our options were to partially soul trap her, which was too dangerous, or..."
Cassandra gasped loudly, covering her mouth in horror. Dorian and the Inquisitor gawked at the Dragonborn, who fell to her knees. Varric blinked and groaned. "Oh, shit..." he murmured. "Tanya..."
Vidar pressed past Serana and approached his sister, who covered her face with her hand, sitting on the ground. He pushed her hand away.
Golden eyes and red sclera met him. Her skin had become a sickly white, ice-cold to the touch.
She burst into tears.