A/N: Ugh, been a while since I've posted, but I had an editorial decision to make regarding future plot development and it needed thought. Also I have a sekrit side project in the works which may get posted when this is done. So here, just in time for Christmas, have some more chapters of Fearless Vampire Hunters!
Summary: Cicero and Athis reach the safety of Hag's End, but when their information turns out to link Castle Volkihar with the recent vampire attacks, it's time for the Reach's authorities to swing into action. Meanwhile, it seems they might be about to get unexpected help as Jorrvaskr gets a visitor.
Sunset at Hag's End and Athis seemed to perk up considerably as shadows lengthened and the sun disappeared behind the Druadachs. Of course, being Athis, this just meant he went from heartbroken and miserable to grimly determined. Cicero liked Athis, he truly did, but all the same he did sometimes wonder what Eola saw in him.
Not his place to judge, Cicero reminded himself. If Cicero could slip off now and then and crawl into the bed of some big, scary Nord or Orc to be utterly and completely used and dominated, Eola could cuddle up with a surly Dunmer. Cicero supposed.
They arrived at Deepwood Vale's entrance just in time to see a fight breaking out between ReachGuard warriors and some opponents who thought it was a good idea to assault Matriarch Keirine's stronghold.
A Drain Life spell sucked the life out of one of the ReachGuard, and Cicero and Athis both simultaneously realised it wasn't just any opponent. It was vampires. Cicero raised his bow and took aim, at the same time as Athis called fire to one hand, had his sword in another and began blasting away at the lead vampire.
With the reinforcements, the battle swung in the ReachGuards' favour, and Cicero was having a fine time. And then the fireball landed in from afar, slamming into Athis's opponent and incinerating him. Athis swiftly finished him off, and then battle was joined by two huge Orc warriors who wasted no time hammering the remaining vampires into submission. Then the smaller of the two warriors, a young woman from the look of it, took one look at Athis and raised her sword.
"Die, vampire!" the Orc cried, and Athis only just countered the blow in time. Then he was frantically fending her off while crying out to stop, he was a Companion, he'd been trying to help!
The assault didn't stop... at least until Cicero leapt out of nowhere with his daggers at the ready, preparing to stab the Orc... and then twin paralysis spells lashed out of the darkness and sent them both falling to the ground.
"Cicero!" Athis cried, catching Cicero as he fell to the ground, while the bigger Orc caught his friend.
"Don't try anything," he snarled, and Athis, recognising Madanach's personal guard, nodded and did nothing. Oh dear gods, this was all he needed, the bloody Reach-King turning up in person.
Fortunately for him, it wasn't the Reach-King striding forward, the ReachGuard falling back as the one who'd cast the paralysis spells approached. No, it was his heir, Kaie, who'd recently acquired a set of black and gold Forsworn gear and dyed her hair bright blue. Why, Athis had no idea but each to their own.
"Kaie, this isn't what it looks like," Athis began, but Kaie's eyes widened as she saw his, and a Detect Life spell confirmed it.
"How the fuck long have you been a vampire?" Kaie said softly. "Does my sister know?"
"About a day and no," Athis admitted, hoping she believed him. To his surprise, Kaie nodded and motioned for the guards to step back from him. Athis almost thought this was going to get resolved peacefully... and then the paralysis spells wore off. The female Orc got up, letting her kinsman help her, but alas Cicero wasn't so reasonable.
"YOU CANNOT KILL HIM!" Cicero shrieked. " HE DIDN'T DO ANYTHING! IT IS NOT HIS FAULT HE IS A VAMPIRE, HE WAS FIGHTING THEM! KAIE YOU CANNOT HURT HIM, YOU CANNOT YOU CANNOT!"
"I wasn't going to-!" Kaie protested, but Cicero was too frenzied to listen.
"ATHIS IS INNOCENT!" Cicero shrieked. "HE DIDN'T KILL ANY REACHGUARD! YOU CANNOT ARREST HIM, CICERO SHALL PROTEST TO THE REACH-KING, HE SHALL, HE SHALL!"
"Boss'll love that!" Borkul growled. His friend was staring at Cicero, clearly wondering just what had turned up.
"I'm not arresting him!" Kaie cried, exasperated. "Sithis' sake, man, calm down!"
"You – you are not?" Cicero whispered. Kaie shook her head.
"No. But I do want to talk to him – to both of you. This is the fifth vampire attack in the Reach in as many months, Da and I are both getting sick of it. Athis, do you know who turned you? Did they have anything to do with this lot?"
"I don't know... maybe?" Athis hazarded, and then Cicero just had to open his mouth.
"There's a whole castle of them just off the coast of Skyrim!" Cicero chirped and Kaie's eyes went cold.
"Oh you had to tell her that," Athis muttered, glaring at Cicero. Kaie just nodded to the two Orcs to move in a bit closer.
"Come with me," Kaie snapped. "Right now. You need to have a little chat with me and Matriarch Keirine."
There were many rumours about Matriarch Keirine. Twin sister of Madanach, this was true. Ruler of Deepwood Vale and Archwitch of Hag's End Magical Research Institute, this was also true. Rumoured to not be human any more... also true. Athis really wished he didn't know this firsthand, but alas he now knew the truth. Because he and Cicero had been hauled into Keirine's throne room, where the First Matriarch of the Reach was sitting, glamours off and her true identity as a Hagraven revealed.
"So," Keirine growled. "You're telling me that you found this vampire princess entombed in an old ruin, found out her family are based not even twenty miles from here, took her to them along with this Elder Scroll she had... and then you turned down her father's offer to bring you into his court?"
"I wasn't signing up with a bunch of vampires!" Athis protested, although frankly seeing this clawed, fanged and feathered monstrosity in charge of an entire town wasn't a lot better.
"And yet here you are, turned into one anyway. Boy, did no one tell you that after fighting vampires, make sure you drink a potion?" Keirine sighed. Athis muttered something incoherent and Keirine just rolled her eyes.
"We're very sorry, Matriarch," Cicero pleaded. "Cicero would have said yes, but he didn't know if Eola would approve. Also he quite likes being a werewolf, and Aela definitely would not have been pleased to see a vampire walk in who was once part of her pack."
"She'll be ecstatic to see him then," Keirine commented. "That's if he's going home. Is he going home?"
Athis looked away, really not sure he wanted to have this conversation with a Daedra-damned Hagraven, but Cicero had no such compunction.
"We were hoping he could claim sanctuary in the Reach," Cicero said brightly. "You give vampires regular blood doses, don't you?"
"If they behave and don't attack our people, yes," Keirine sighed. "I should warn you that due to the recent attacks, the ReachGuard are not nearly as tolerant as they once were. You'll need to sign the register. And provide a blood sample so we can track your location."
"What?" Athis yelled. Cicero had not mentioned that.
"We're being attacked by vampires, and you think we want to let the Reach's vampire residents just wander around at will?" Keirine hissed. "You register, you give a blood sample, you get to live peacefully here and we'll give you a weekly blood potion. You have a problem with that, try your luck with the Nords, see how far you get."
"Brother," Cicero whispered. "Brother, do it, you will need to feed at some point, you will do a lot better living here than anywhere else."
Athis didn't like this at all, but if vampires really had been attacking, he did see the point. At least they weren't arresting vampires on sight. It was something. So Athis signed the register and let Keirine take some of his blood, and when it was done, Keirine tossed him a potion and told him to report in next week for another.
"I recommend you don't hoard them," Keirine advised. "I also recommend you tell Eola sooner rather than later before her father sees your name in the register and does it for you. You know what he's like."
"Cicero's heading back there in the morning," Athis said, patting Cicero on the back. "He's going to bring Eola here."
"Not right away you're not," Keirine said grimly. "I have a castle of potentially hostile vampires on my doorstep and it turns out they have an Elder Scroll. I don't have any evidence they're behind the attacks, but it wouldn't surprise me if they were. But in order to attack them, I need proof, and for that, I need spies. Seeing as you two lamentably failed to infiltrate their organisation, I'm going to have to bring in outside help, which means you, Cicero, are going to Sky Haven Temple. Tell Delphine everything and get her on the case. She thinks she's a top spymistress? Let her prove it. Tell her to get eyes on that castle."
"Yes, Matriarch," Cicero whispered, and Athis wondered why on earth taking orders from an inhuman monster came so easily to him.
"Did you want me to get the ReachGuard on alert, Auntie?" Kaie asked and Keirine nodded.
"Yes. Tell your father, but try and dissuade him from actually invading. We need information on what we're dealing with first. But I could use extra troops and having the ReachGuard ready to march would be an enormous help. Also get Elisif on side. This is going on in her Hold, she should be dealing with it. But likely won't."
"She can't act without evidence either," Kaie reminded her aunt. "She can't just level an entire castle on a whim. Even if they are vampires."
Keirine growled but did not argue.
"Nevertheless, she should know," Keirine said, shrugging. "I have a feeling we may need her if these vampires are behind the attacks."
"That we could," Kaie agreed. "We could use Odahviing as well."
"We could use him for many things!" Keirine laughed. "But it is probably for the best we're not allowed. Go on, all three of you, go. Rest here tonight. But tomorrow... tomorrow we've got a potential war to plan for."
Cicero had been a bit sad to leave Athis behind. The Dunmer had seemed so lonely and miserable, even with an assured future in the Reach, that Cicero had feared to leave him alone. But he'd agreed to wait to hear from Eola before making any firm decisions, and so Cicero had left him sitting by the Azura shrine in the little Chapel of the Reclamations at Deepwood Vale, hoping he'd be all right.
But then Cicero had got out onto the open road, at which point he'd carefully stripped, packed everything into his bag, glanced around to make sure no one was watching (should probably have done that before stripping, but Cicero wasn't shy about his body and they shouldn't be staring, should they), took his pack in his mouth and transformed.
Seconds later a red werewolf was bounding across the valley, heading for Sky Haven Temple. There was a bit of a consternation in Karthwasten as he bounded through, but no one actually died and Cicero kept on running all the way to Karthspire.
Thank Sithis for Reach law being fairly lenient on werewolves that weren't actually eating anyone, because Cicero didn't have 1000 septims on him, and if he'd transformed back in the middle of a Nord community, there'd have been trouble. Fortunately Reachfolk were made of sterner stuff and just bountied him for public nudity. Apparently they had some standards.
Once dressed, and forty septims worse off, Cicero scampered into Sky Haven Temple itself, past the traps and finally into Cyrodiil Court, where a bell-pull announced to the Blades that they had a guest.
The badly-scarred young woman who answered might have frightened some... but not Cicero.
"Pretty Zora! Lovely Zora! Hello!" Cicero cooed up at the woman once known as the Diamond of Riverwood.
"Cicero! My hero!" Zora gasped. They'd first met when Cicero had saved her from a necromancer in Brittleshin Pass – he'd actually been after a Totem of Hircine, but the pretty woman with the scarred face had intrigued him sufficiently to not kill. He'd have invited her to Jorrvaskr, but alas Eola couldn't stand her. So Sky Haven Temple it had been instead, and Zora was doing well as a mighty dragonslayer, even if she had been a bit surprised to find the former innkeeper of her home village running the show. "Sky Haven Temple is honoured to see such a fine personage grace us with his presence. To what do we owe the honour?"
"Bad things!" Cicero chirped, before belatedly realising he could perhaps be a bit less pleased about this news. "Er... there is trouble, Zora, much trouble! Vampires are attacking everywhere! And now Cicero thinks he's found their headquarters. But we don't know for sure it's them. So Matriarch Keirine needs spies. Cicero was hoping Delphine could help!"
"Aie, vampires!" Zora gasped. "You had better come in. Delphine's been looking into the problem. You know where they live? She'll definitely be interested!"
Zora disappeared into the Temple and seconds later the door swung open, and Cicero sprinted in.
Inside he found the main banqueting table covered with a map of Skyrim and the Reach, and flags marking sites of vampire attacks all over it. There weren't many settlements that didn't have at least one.
"Look at this, there's no pattern to any of it!" Delphine sighed. "Attacks in Riften, Falkreath, three in Whiterun, four in Solitude, two in Riverwood, and one in Windhelm too. They're targeting settlements indiscriminately. Brynjolf, are you sure no one's got anything on them."
"Positive, lass," Brynjolf sighed. "No one knows where they're coming from. Or what they want. Or even if they're from the same coven. All we know is that they're chipping away at resistance. Honestly, they're killing more people than the dragons."
"It's true," Ralof added. "We've made a point out of clearing out known vampire lairs, but no effect. Whoever they are, they're well organised and unlike anything we've ever dealt with before."
Brynjolf and Ralof, former second-in-command of the Thieves Guild and former captain in Ulfric's army, once men with nothing in common, now united by mutual hatred of the Thalmor, serving as leading lights in the Blades. Brynjolf handled information. Ralof headed up the dragonslaying efforts. Together they served Queen and country, working tirelessly to find out things Elisif could do with knowing, keeping dragons under control and working to undermine Thalmor efforts. But despite all the resources they had at their disposal, it was clear they knew nothing about vampires either.
Which meant humble Cicero knew more than sweet Delphine did. How delightful!
"DELPHINE!" Cicero squealed, bouncing across the room and draping himself over the table, grinning up at older but still quite attractive Delphine, taking care not to ruin her map, because that would never do, would it? Cicero had long ago learnt firsthand of the perils of ruining Delphine's war table.
"Cicero," Delphine greeted him, smiling despite herself even as Ralof muttered "oh Talos" and Brynjolf just muttered something that sounded like it rhymed with 'ox sake'. "What brings you here? News from Jorrvaskr?"
"Yes!" Cicero gasped. "Well. No. Sort of. Delphine, Cicero thinks he knows where the vampires are coming from!"
That did get her attention.
"Really?" She turned to Brynjolf, grinning at him. "See, Bryn, he's not completely useless, is he? Well, Cicero, out with it. Tell me what you know and how you found out."
So Cicero did, leaving out Athis's transformation, but otherwise telling Delphine everything, with Brynjolf, Ralof and Zora all listening intently, and just as Keirine had done, Delphine actually growled with exasperation to hear it.
"You didn't take his offer up?" Delphine cried. Cicero blinked to hear this. He knew Delphine didn't operate on the right side of the law, but even so, he knew she did have morals. How vampirism fitted into this, he really didn't know.
"Cicero didn't want to be a vampire," Cicero protested. "Cicero quite likes... Cicero doesn't want to have to creep into people's bedrooms and drink their blood!"
"You'd rather keep it as a hobby, would you?" Ralof inquired and didn't even flinch at the frosty glare Cicero gave him.
"Now, now, Ralof, leave Cicero's bedroom activities out of this," Brynjolf drawled. "The lad's got some sense – not sure I'd want to be a vampire either."
"True, but even so it would have been a perfect opportunity to infiltrate them," Delphine sighed. "Never mind. We know they're there, at least. And that they really wanted this Elder Scroll. I wonder what their plans are. Or what they want with the Scroll, last I heard you can't even read Elder Scrolls without going blind. Hmm... All right, Ralof. Round up the troops and go for Northwatch Keep. Raze the place to the ground, kill everyone, apart from the prisoners, they can come here. Make it look like vampires did it if you can. Once the Thalmor are cleared out, we can have a few people camped nearby, watching. Brynjolf, we're going to need all the information we can find on Elder Scrolls. Didn't we have a Moth Priest visit Skyrim a few weeks back? See if you can find out where he's gone. We could do with him on tap – that, and if they've got an Elder Scroll, the vampires will likely want to read it, which means they might be looking for him too."
"On it, Del," Brynjolf announced, heading off to start composing letters for his contacts. Ralof likewise excused himself to start calling in the Blades' military expertise for an assault on Northwatch Keep. Given that many of the survivors of Ulfric's army had joined Delphine's cause, this was a considerable number of people.
Which left Cicero alone with Delphine.
"So if pretty Delphine needs nothing else, Cicero shall be on his merry way – eep!" Delphine had grabbed his arm to stop him disappearing.
"Not yet. I need you to share what you know with my loremasters. I know vampires and Elder Scrolls aren't really Esbern's area of expertise but he might know something. And then there's his... friend."
Delphine gritted her teeth as she mentioned the Blades' most controversial source. It had been a matter of considerable argument between Delphine and the Dragonborn even letting him live at all, and then there'd been an even bigger argument when said Dragonborn had suggested Esbern might want to talk to him and find out more about dragons. The argument had gone on for months up until the Dragonborn's husband had turned up with half the ReachGuard at his back and cheerfully reminded Delphine that he was letting them remain here at considerable personal risk should the Thalmor find them, and perhaps they could repay his generosity by letting his wife have her way? And so Delphine had reluctantly agreed, and Paarthurnax had come to visit the Blades.
Relations had been frosty at first, but Esbern and Paarthurnax had this in common – both were obsessed with things draconic, and in the end, they somehow forgot they were Dovah and joor, and Paarthurnax now visited on a regular basis to talk with Esbern regarding dragon history and the Thu'um, and the Blades library was gaining some fascinating new additions.
Delphine could wish none of this had ever happened, but alas, she was stuck with it now on pain of Esbern being upset and Madanach being even more upset and slaughtering them all.
Cicero on the other hand loved having a dragon to talk to.
"PAARTHURNAX!" Cicero squealed as he raced out into the sunlight, where Esbern was sitting back in a chair talking to the old dragon perched on the pavilion roof. "Paarthurnax, Paarthurnax, it is Cicero! Hello!"
"Hello Cicero," Paarthurnax said, no little amusement in his voice. "How goes your own practice of the Voice?"
Cicero's face fell at this question. "Not well," Cicero admitted. "Cicero still cannot breathe fire. Paarthurnax, why can't Cicero breathe fire! Can't you just teach me like you did the pretty Dragonborn?"
"Cicero," Paarthurnax sighed. "You are not Dovahkiin. The gods did not choose you. All I can do is try and teach as best I can. You are meditating, yes? You are contemplating the meaning of fire?"
"Ye-e-ess!" Cicero whined. "Cicero stares into every fire he sees, Cicero even talked with Matriarch Keirine about how Destruction magic actually worked, and he didn't fully understand all of it, but it was mostly about reaching through the Veil into realms of fire and bringing some through. So if Cicero can bring it into the world with his hands, why can't he breathe fire?"
Cicero pouted up at the dragon as if Paarthurnax was personally responsible for Cicero not being Dragonborn. Paarthurnax even looked sympathetic, but honestly, there wasn't a lot he could do.
"Cicero," Paarthurnax said calmly. "I cannot magically gift you with the Thu'um, but I will offer this. The Thu'um is not the summoning of fire from the Beyond. The Thu'um is the creation of fire, the bringing into existence of something that was not there before. Cicero, you are too bound up in what fire can destroy. Stop focusing on Destruction and instead think on Creation."
Cicero genuinely hadn't thought about it that way before. All his meditations had been on fire burning, destroying, laying waste to all before him. He'd never really thought of the act of kindling fire before, of bringing it into being for the sheer joy of creation. Maybe this was where he'd been going wrong.
"Cicero shall definitely try that, thank you Paarthurnax!" Cicero chorused. "Oh but Paarthurnax, dear Paarthurnax, do you know anything about vampires? Or Elder Scrolls? Wasn't it you who sent our dear Dovahkiin after one?"
"Yes," Paarthurnax said, exchanging glances with Esbern. "But I can hardly claim to be an expert on the Kelle. The Dov ride the winds of time but the Scrolls tell the winds where to blow. Some things are beyond even us, Cicero."
"But she was able to read one!" Cicero cried. "Without going blind! She saw Dragonrend in it! How did she do it, how, how?"
"Cicero," Paarthurnax sighed. "I don't know. Nothing is certain with such things. That she managed it at all is down to reading it at the Time Wound. Read a Scroll in the right place and time, and many things might be revealed. But only if the Kel allows it. That is your answer, Cicero – the Kel did not wish to be eaten along with the world and revealed its knowledge to the Dovahkiin. Maybe also her dragon blood saved her. Who can tell. And of vampires..." here Paarthurnax actually shuddered in disgust. "Pitiful creatures. Aping the immortality of the Dov, but it is not true immortality to die and preserve one's form, feeding off others to live. Let them keep the night. They do not truly know the glory of the wind and the sky and the sun."
"So you don't know anything about them attacking towns or why they might want an Elder Scroll then?" Delphine put in, having decided enough was enough.
Esbern and Paarthurnax exchanged looks, surprised at this news.
"They have an Elder Scroll?" Esbern mused. "Well then, there must be some prophecy or other, some prophecy about vampires. I'll need to look into it. I'm sure the library must have something, let me go and find out..."
Esbern was already wandering off to scour the library for prophecies and Paarthurnax just shrugged.
"I can tell you nothing further, Cicero. Vampires are not something the Dov have ever really concerned themselves with. I know nothing of what they might be planning now. Likely you and your Akaviri friends are better informed than I."
Cicero doubted very much he was better informed than Paarthurnax on anything, unless it was looking inconspicuous and stabbing the deserving, but he thanked the old Dovah anyway. Looked like his best option now was just returning to Jorrvaskr and talking to Eola. She needed to know her boyfriend was now a blood-drinking creature of the night.
Jorrvaskr was strangely quiet as Cicero skipped inside. True, Torvar was a lot quieter now he was sober, and Vignar was off in his own room, no doubt still nursing a grudge against the High Queen for daring to win the war, and Vilkas and Ria weren't back yet... but all the same, too quiet. A couple of the younglings were staring at him and whispering to each other, which was also a bit of a worry. Usually they'd call to him or raise a mug. Not today.
And then Aela turned up, arms folded and staring him down and Cicero realised he was in trouble.
"There you are," Aela said, disapproving. "You took your time! Where's Athis."
"Hag's End," Cicero admitted. "He lives! He is well... but Cicero needs to speak to Eola. Where is she?"
"Downstairs," Aela said, turning and leading him away. "Entertaining Jorrvaskr's latest guest. Who has been asking for you and Athis and won't say anything until one of you shows up."
Cicero scratched his head, wondering who on earth would visit Jorrvaskr asking for him, that Aela didn't already know. Not many people, if Cicero was honest. And if you added in people who knew Athis as well, that narrowed it down even further. So he followed Aela downstairs to where Eola was standing outside the Harbinger's room, interrogating the new arrival.
"Look, I'm a Reachwoman," Eola sighed. "I'm down with mages, and I'm even down with vampires. And if one wants to sign up with the Companions, I'm not going to turn away someone with honourable intentions. But sweetie, I can't reasonably let you in if you won't tell me what your intentions are! Or what the deal with the Scroll is."
"Look, I've come a long way," Serana sighed, and Cicero's heart skipped a beat as he realised the vampire princess had fled her home already. He'd only dropped her off two days ago! Was she alright? Had something gone wrong?
"I only just met you, and I don't exactly know who I can trust yet," Serana continued. "But I know Cicero and I know Athis, and I know they kept their word and helped me when they didn't have to. They said they were from here. Was I wrong?"
"No, but they're not here," Eola said, hands on her hips as she stared Serana down. Eola wasn't exactly tall, but she had ways of getting round that. She'd got round it this time by sitting Serana in one of the chairs while she loomed over her to the best of her ability. "And seeing as I'm Jorrvaskr's Harbinger, I'm entitled to know what your business is here. Particularly as my husband's involved."
Serana did start up at that, blinking in surprise.
"Oh, you're married to Athis?" Serana said, and Cicero felt a little bit offended by that. Why did no one ever think he was husband material?
"No, not exactly. I'm married to-" Eola stopped as she heard Aela approach, and when she saw Cicero, her eyes lit up.
"And there he is," Eola purred. "Sweet Cicero himself. Come on, husband, get over here, tell me what you've been up to, and just how did you manage to meet a cute vampire lady, hmm?"
Cicero could feel his cheeks burning and Serana's rather grateful smile wasn't helping.
"It is not like that, pretty Eola," Cicero giggled nervously. "Nothing untoward happened, nothing at all!"
"Except when you ended up unexpectedly naked," Serana added, completely unnecessarily in Cicero's opinion. "But you did save me from a troll, so..."
Cicero was definitely blushing now, no doubt about it, he could tell, and Eola was clearly trying not to laugh. Aela was barely even trying.
"Let me guess, beast form?" Eola laughed. "Yeah, that happens a lot. I'd say half the Reach has seen his cock by now. So. Mind telling me how you met? I'm really very curious."
"Dimhollow Crypt," Serana replied, apparently feeling a little more trusting now that Cicero was here. "I was... imprisoned there, for a very long time, it turns out."
"With an Elder Scroll," Aela noted. "Not seen one of those in a while. Not since the Dragonborn found hers. Where'd you find it?"
"It was my father's," Serana said, voice softening as she looked at the floor. "There was this prophecy... look, Cicero, you met him. You know he's not a good man, even by vampire standards."
Cicero nodded, dropping to the floor next to Serana, legs crossed as he gazed sympathetically up at her. If Eola knew how to intimidate, Cicero knew well how to cajole and persuade. Especially where women were concerned.
"He is a very bad man, my sweetling, very bad indeed!" Cicero whispered. "He has a whole castle full of vampires and thinks of mortals as prey!"
"He's not entirely wrong," Eola purred. "But he's very wrong indeed when it comes to us. So you met him? When?"
"I wanted to go home, find out what had happened, see if my mother was all right," Serana told her, face hardening. "But she wasn't there. Turns out she disappeared the same time as I did. Taking my father's other Elder Scroll with her."
"Other Elder Scroll?" Aela interrupted. "How many did he have and why would a vampire need Elder Scrolls?"
"It takes decades of meditation to even begin to learn how to read one," Eola mused. "But he's a vampire, he has the time. The question is, why. Elder Scrolls are tricky and unpredictable, and you need to be a scholar to truly appreciate them."
"He's no scholar, but he is obsessed," Serana sighed. "He's a vampire and he celebrated that he'd conquered death, but hated that it left him vulnerable to the sun. He'd always complain about it... and then he found out about this prophecy."
"What prophecy?" Eola probed, sensing this was getting closer to the heart of the matter. She settled into the chair opposite Serana, genuinely curious about this vampire. Child of powerful and ambitious nobles, parents clearly at war... Eola sympathised. Her father wasn't exactly a good man, but he did at least care about her. Her mother on the other hand... Eola preferred not to remember the vicious old cow her mother had been.
"The Tyranny of the Sun," Serana whispered. "A prophecy about some way to free vampires from it, to blot out the Sun and plunge the world into eternal darkness. He's been looking for it ever since. Obsessed with it. He was never exactly a good person beforehand but he was still my father. But since he found it, he just... changed. It took him over. He'd spend every waking moment hunting for more information about it. It was kinda sick, actually."
Eola ruffled Cicero's hair, as much to comfort herself as him. Didn't she know what that was like, to lose her parents to a cause. Cidhna Mine took her father, and her mother had been lost to her own ambitions years before she was even born. Now here was another woman also mourning a lost family life.
Cicero clearly seemed to feel similarly, because he'd leaned forward and taken Serana's hand.
"But that is sad!" he whispered. "Eola, that is sad, very sad! It must be sad, because Cicero only took Serana home two days ago, and she has run away already to get help from someone she barely knows! Her papa is clearly a bad man!"
"Yes, yes, he probably is, and of course she can stay here," Eola soothed. "Not surprising she ran away."
It was Aela who finally decided enough was enough.
"Excuse me, did we miss the part where this man's building a vampire army, has already massacred the Vigil of Stendarr at their Hall and is planning to blot out the Sun?" Aela snapped. "Eola, we can't just let him get away with this!"
"I wasn't planning to!" Eola sighed. "I know the Sun's important – magic relies on it, magic that isn't blood magic anyway, and all the plants will die without it too."
"But you barely eat plants, you always leave or pick out the vegetables, you only chew on snowberries every so often to avoid getting scurvy..." Cicero said, scratching his head and trying to remember when he'd last seen Eola eating anything green. Other than the odd Orc bandit, anyway.
"Animals eat plants!" Eola snapped. "The animals all die, people all die, what do we do then, hmm? So yeah, we stop him! Serana, how far has he got? I presume he was looking for Elder Scrolls to find out if they had the complete prophecy."
"He knew the prophecy was written in an Elder Scroll; he just didn't know which one," Serana said, fingering her Scroll. "So he collected all the ones he could find, hoping he could eventually work out how to read them. My mother and I... we were trying to talk him out of it, but he just wouldn't listen. I think he even stopped seeing us as family eventually. We were just things in the end. So my mother and I – well, my mother really, came up with a plan to stop him. It was her who sealed me away with the Scroll, so he couldn't get his hands on it. She took the other one and went into hiding."
"Wait, your mother shut you away?" Eola interrupted, and Cicero actually cried out.
"But that is not right!" Cicero cried. "Mamas should not shut their children away... in the darkness... all alone... abandoned! They should not, they should not!"
Cicero had started rocking, eyes staring wildly into the distance and Serana gasped, shrinking back as the little jester looked to be heading for a complete nervous breakdown.
"Sweetie," Eola whispered, dropping to Cicero's side as she put her arms round him. "Sweetie, stop, this isn't gonna help."
"They should not!" Cicero sobbed, clinging on to Eola as he stared up at Serana with tears in his eyes. "They should not!"
"Is he all right?" Serana said, feeling a bit guilty for setting him off. She'd guessed Cicero was a little... touched in the head, but he'd seemed upbeat and stable most of the time. Now here he was staring at her, something in her story clearly getting to him. Yes, of course it had been a long time, and no she'd not liked it, but she was the quiet type by nature and she'd slept through most of it anyway. It had been for the best, to keep the Scroll away from her father while her mother dealt with everything. Hadn't it. Hadn't it?
Looking at Cicero, seemingly distraught at the mere idea of a mother doing that to her child, Serana was no longer so sure.
"He'll be fine," Eola said, dragging Cicero to his feet and cajoling him to come with her for a bit of quiet time. "He just has a history with mothers leaving him, that's all. He's... he doesn't do well on his own. Come on, Cicero, come with me. We'll have a cuddle and a talk, yes?"
Cicero nodded tearfully, before breaking away from Eola and running over to Serana, all ready to hug her... and then he stopped, before gently placing a hand on her shoulder.
"If Serana ever wishes to talk, Cicero will listen," Cicero said quietly. "Serana is Cicero's friend. Of course Cicero shall help."
"Thank you, Cicero. I appreciate it," Serana told him, definitely feeling touched by his kindness, and impressed that he did actually restrain himself from cuddling her. It was almost like he knew she didn't like being touched. Cicero nodded, before running back to Eola to cuddle her, but he was still peeping out at Serana. Eola patted Cicero's back before smiling at Serana.
"Don't worry, you're welcome to stay as long as you like," Eola told her. "The quarters are down the hall, grab a bed and fall in it when you're tired. Or not. That's OK too. Only, er, don't feed on anyone here. Not a good idea."
"That's all right, I fed before I left the castle," Serana said without thinking. "My father keeps a stable of thralls, I thought I might as well take advantage – what?"
"Thralls?" Aela said quietly, dangerously. "Human thralls? A stable?"
"Ye-es," Serana admitted. "Look, he's got a whole castle full of vampires to keep happy, he has to feed them somehow!"
Aela turned to Eola, appalled. "Eola, we have got to do something about this man!"
"We will, we will," Eola promised. "Only give me time to think about this – Serana only just got here, I need to settle Cicero, and this is her father we're talking about!"
"He's a monster, Eola," Aela said firmly. "He enslaves humans for food and wants to put out the sun."
Eola glanced over at Serana, who wasn't looking too pleased at hearing her father described this way but couldn't exactly deny the truth of this either. Eola rather knew how she felt – hers wasn't exactly universally beloved. However, for all his faults, Madanach did not have a stable of human thralls anywhere to feed off, nor was he planning to extinguish the sun. He didn't consume human flesh on a regular basis either.
"We'll stop him, I promise," Eola sighed. "Just... let me think all this over, OK? This is going to take some planning and I don't think the Companions can do it alone."
Aela glared but did at length nod and take her leave. Serana lingered before heading out herself.
"Thank you," Serana said quietly. "I didn't expect anyone to care how I felt about all this. I just... thank you."
"Don't thank me yet," Eola told her. "Thank me when it's all over. In the mean time, get some rest. I think we're all going to need it."
Weren't they all. As Serana took her leave, Cicero waving goodbye, Eola brooded on all she'd heard. Vampires trying to take over the world. Not good. Nothing personal against vampires, of course, but if Molag Bal's children took over the world, that would lead to a fight back, and worshippers of any Daedra would get caught up in the fighting. The increased scavenging opportunities were not worth the inevitable rise in orders of holy warriors dedicated to turning back the forces of darkness. The Vigil had been bad enough. The last thing Eola needed was competent and highly trained orders of holy warriors who actually were taken seriously and received funding from the governments of the day.
No, best for everyone that this be nipped in the bud as soon as they could. Only Eola had a feeling Serana wasn't going to get a happy ending.
A/N: Zora Fair-Child isn't mine, she's from the Interesting NPCs mod.
The nice thing about the Dragonborn in this universe is that she's genuinely got sufficient clout to force Delphine and Paarthurnax to come to terms, not to mention the husband with his soldiers camped outside Sky Haven Temple. So that's what I've done!
Oh Serana. Dear Serana. She has escaped her own messed-up family and sought aid from the two people in Skyrim with plenty of messed-up family troubles of their own - Eola whose father missed her entire childhood near enough due to prison, and whose mother would totally have sacrificed thousands to Molag Bal for power if she could, and then there's Cicero, Mr Mother Issues himself. Ah well, at least she now has friends who can commiserate with her.