For nearly a day all Athene had was the darkness, but as the day wore on, the darkness revealed itself to her in ways she had never imagined. It wasn't just that her eyes adjusted, as they used to do, but they changed—began to work with the lack of light so she could see the walls of the basement where she was trapped, make out the glowing white of little bones in the corner, and smell an underground stream that fed into the swamps outside. The basement came alive to her, as she faded from life and became something else.
And she hungered. Her near-frenzy at Falion's lovely neck was nothing compared to the deep and excruciating hunger that came over her as she waited and waited beneath the house, listening to human sounds above her. There was the wizard's heavy footsteps as he shuffled around the place, and Athene could hear his muttering and knew he was working on the tests he wanted to give her. But there was also the light steps of the child, Agni, and those were the most intriguing. They made Athene stand up and press herself against the low roof, trying to hear each time the little girl breathed, counting it out and wondering how youth would taste on her parched tongue.
Some time after that first day Athene gave up trying to remain moral. The thirst was all she had, and if Falion was intent on letting her starve he would pay with his life when she had one moment of opportunity. It wasn't as if she'd never killed before. Ha—She'd killed dozens. She'd make it hundreds. Thousands, if she needed, she'd win the civil war with her sharp teeth and fingernails, and she'd make all of Skyrim bleed for her.
It was also some time after that first day that she began to pray. She thought about Gods she hadn't revered since she was a little girl and thought that Gods answered prayers if you could only be a good enough child. She thought of her mother, and the rest of her family. And she thought of her sister, the one remaining alive, that she knew was somewhere in Skyrim too. Athene wondered if she could have spared herself all her pain if she'd only stopped being stubborn and found Shaude and told her they would always be family no matter what decisions they'd made.
Athene was dropping into hallucination, seeing a lake of blood fill up her small basement, when she heard the slam of the door upstairs. Falion was gone. Agni was alone.
She raised herself up again and reached towards the trap door she couldn't touch.
"Agni," she said. She called with the memory of her mother drawing her in from the forests when she was small. "Agni, sweetheart. Hear me, darling."
The feathery footsteps stopped. The girl heard her.
"Over here, sweetheart. I'm down here alone. I don't want to be alone, my sweet. Can you come and say hello?"
Agni had found the trap door. Maybe she'd always known it was there, but never suspected that Falion would use it. Maybe she'd been warned away.
"Hello?" came the girl's whisper.
"Agni, sweetness, open the door. Let me out into the light. It's dark and I'm afraid."
"Who are you?"
"My name is Athene. I'm just a girl, too. I just want to be free. Please help me."
There was a silence in which Athene's still heart ached and she was sure she'd blown it. But then scrabblings on the wood, and Agni was unlocking the trap door.
Athene's breath sped up, though she wasn't sure she needed it. She didn't need air and she didn't need her blood. She needed Agni's blood, Agni's life. It was so close now. It was just beyond her fingertips.
"Agni, yes," she said. "Thank you so much."
A blinding square of light grew above her and Athene cringed back, covering her eyes.
"Hey, you are a girl," Agni said. "Why are you down here? What—"
Athene didn't let her finish. She reached and grabbed the soft arms and dragged Agni down to the basement, into darkness with the vampire.