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ROË

Beyond Death

The Soul Cairn

It felt like they walked in the land of the dead, but this was something far worse. It was a land of captured souls, bound forever to this place as immaterial, forlorn strands of fog, made up of pale purple unlight. And yet, even in this place, where these wretches floated on the intangible wind, where they occasionally let muted wails and howls come from miles and miles away and yet right next to them, even here, the horror and lifelessness couldn't touch Roë. She walked next to Serana, enjoying the feeling of being in love. She'd forgotten what it felt like to actually enjoy a feeling.

Every time she sneaked a look at Serana, she knew it wasn't just her heart playing tricks on her. Even here, in this dark purple unlight, she was the most beautiful woman Roë had ever seen, and the only one she wanted to stay with forever. She'd follow her to the ends of Nirn, and even beyond, as she was doing now.

"You alright?" Serana asked, though she'd been silent the entire walk. "You've got a funny look on your face."

Roë smiled at her. "I'm fine, Serana. Great, even. Coming to terms with a few things, you could say."

"Oh," Serana said cheerfully, the stifling and numbing otherness of this world not able to take away the positive tone in her voice entirely. "That's good to hear. Wanna share?"

"Not just yet. But I'm just… I don't know, making things a bit easier for myself." She'd play her cards close until she was certain that Serana felt likewise, although she liked to think the odds were pretty high, she'd expressed quite a lot of affection towards her already, and Roë guessed that meant a lot for someone as down-to-earth as Serana.

"I'm glad you are," Serana said. "Told you it wasn't all that bad?"

"Yeah." It was all that bad, but without this, she wouldn't have met Serana.

They were walking towards the castle-like structure, that looked from a distance as if it was erected from pure blackness.

"Aren't you uh, I don't know," Roë asked, "a bit apprehensive towards seeing your mother?"

Serana turned her head, still walking. "No. Why?"

"Well, it's been years and years since you've seen her?"

Serana laughed, her cheer making the unlight around them a little less depressing. "It's only been a matter of a few weeks to me, Roë."

"Yes, but, to her…?"

"Mm. I don't think things have changed a lot. Mother was always… less ambitious than my father was. I assume that's why she fled the Castle too."

"I don't think you've told me her name yet?"

Serana paused for a moment. "Mmno, I don't think I have." She resumed walking. "Well, unless she's changed her name for some reason, it's still Valerica. But… I don't think of her as that, just… mother."

"Mm. Same for me. When people ask me about Roëlaï, I keep having to stop and go, 'who? oh right, my mom'. Heh."

With a grin, Serana said, "Exactly."

While they talked, Roë noticed the strange horse's skull lying in the vapour by her feet. It seemed to glow somehow. But perhaps it was just a trick of her mind, because the glow was gone as soon as she'd noticed it.

"Over there," Serana warned, pointing ahead. "Skeletons."

Roë really wasn't keen on fighting anything in this horrible realm, but the rickety bone men already shambled towards them, some holding stone-like things they'd picked up somewhere, others having their finger bones hooked into claws, and one of them was even holding his left humerus in his right hand to use as a weapon. The bones weren't attached physically, they were just… suspended in the air to form human skeletons, their colour no longer white, but like polished grey stone.

"Do we have to do this?"

"M-hm," Serana merely said, raising her hand. "I wouldn't transform here either if I were you. The energies you might absorb during your attacks is probably… not very healthy, even for us dead girls."

"I'll… just chop them apart old-style," Roë said, her eyes fixed on the skeletons, that moved less like shambling corpses and more like jerky, twitchy marionettes. Pin pricks of dark blue unlight glowed in their eye sockets. Because just spastic skeletons weren't creepy enough on their own.

"They're just bones," Serana said calmly, noticing Roë's nervousness. "They won't be a problem unless you allow them to be."

"Right." But still, what if she was injured in this realm? Would the energies get in her bloodstream somehow? Even for something that was no longer alive, this could be dangerous. This realm didn't play by the rules she was used to. She drew her shortsword, aware that it was a far from ideal weapon against the hard, lifeless bones of the skeletons. No arteries to slash, no tendons to sever, no vitals to stab. It would have to do.

Serana would have some trouble too. Icicles and fans of flames wouldn't hurt these things much. But as she said, "Come on, let's show them not to mess with nobility," and conjured up not an icicle, but a solid chunk of ice, Roë realized Serana would have no problem whatsoever.

The big rock of ice shot away, smacking into the skull of the first skeleton, batting it clean off, the lower jaw knocked loose. The rest of it just fell down in a heap.

"Where's a comedy xylophone sound when you need one?" Serana grunted, launching another ice ball. This one struck the skeleton holding his own arm in the chest, sending it flying apart.

They were close enough now, and Roë took a swing at the closest one, hacking its skull off the vertebrae and sending it to the ground in a clattering of loose bones.

Serana ducked under a claw swipe and with a hard kick, sent the skeleton staggering back, after which Roë gave it a back-handed smack with the pommel of her sword, her vampiric strength making the blow powerful enough to cave in the cranium, and this skeleton, too, fell over and apart. Another ice ball knocked another skeleton apart, and the last one got its skull knocked off by a roundhouse kick from Roë.

"Hardly broke a sweat," Serana remarked, brushing imaginary dust off her sleeves.

"Cocky," Roë said with a grin. "Want a victory pose from me too?"

"Ooh, sure, just pump your fist, then windmill your sword above your head a few times, how's that?"

"Won't make an impression with this puny thing. I'd need something more massive."

"Well, at any rate," Serana said, "Not all fights have to be tense and suspenseful nail-biters."

"I'd actually prefer if none of them were," Roë simply said.

"Not how life works, I'm afraid. Or well, unlife." Absently, she kicked one of the skulls away, sending it bopping along the surface of this realm. It looked as if every collection of fallen bones had a barely-visible, twisted miasma hanging above it. It would have made Roë shudder if she still could.

Meanwhile, the castle-like structure had come a lot closer, its jagged walls and crumbled turrets clearly distinguishable, even though vapour still obscured its base.

On they walked, with no major events this time, except the occasional barely audible wail or sigh that brushed past them in a streamer of icy mist.

Before long, they found themselves at the curious structure. It was shaped like a castle ruin, but there were no gardens, no moat, no flags or banners, nothing except the cold, dark blocks of whatever otherworldly substance that had been used to build it. It was just… empty walls.

"Desperately needs a good decorator," Serana remarked wryly, echoing Roë's thoughts.

They were standing right at the main gate, well, the main arch really, because there was no gate or portcullis. From what they could see, it led into a courtyard, equally barren as the rest. The ground had no tiles or flagstones, it was just this same dark purple substance that was everywhere, this sand-like dust. It made it look as if this was a ruin being swallowed by this dark purple desert. Maybe it was.

"Standing in front of it isn't gonna get us anywhere," Serana said at length, sounding like she needed to overcome a mental threshold. "Let's go inside, see my mother."

"Right behind you," Roë could only say.

More of the same in the courtyard. Just walls surrounding them, with a dark structure that looked like a fountain in the middle, if all fountains looked like dark, otherworldly, dry receptacles filled with nothing but dark purple dust.

On their right-hand side stood something more than just a blind, crumbling wall. It wasn't much more, but it was something at least. The walls were higher there, and they formed a small chapel-like construction, with a single, deep niche at the base. When they approached, they saw it wasn't a niche, but an actual entrance.

Serana made to walk in, holding out one hand in front of her, but her hand was knocked back by an unseen force.

"Ow," she muttered, rubbing her fingertips. "Son of a beesting."

"Some kind of barrier?"

"Seems so…"

When they looked more closely, they could just barely perceive a slowly shifting barrier of faint light, that blocked the entrance to the little building.

"Any idea how we'll get in there?" Roë asked.

"Mmmno. It's a pretty powerful barrier from the looks of it." And massaging her fingertips, she added with a little grin, "and from the feels of it."

"That's… problematic. No fancy magicka to dispel it?"

With a grin, Serana said, "I take offence at your discounting of my flabbergasting command of ethereal forces as 'fancy magicka'."

"Forgive me, all-powerful sorceress."

Serana put her hands in her sides and looked up at the building in front of them. "Come on, churlish and unmagickal bodyguard, maybe there's a way around." She walked away, saying, "I'm going to go have a look around."

It was then that Roë saw a face suddenly appear in the darkness of the doorway. "Wah!" she jumped, taking a surprised step back.

The face immediately scrunched up into a sour frown. "I may be old, but not old enough to make people recoil in horror."

The person looked normal, well, normal enough to be part of Roë and Serana's world at least, although this one too, had the pallor and blazing eyes of the Vampire noble. And though her features were rather sharp and more narrow, she bore a striking resemblance to Serana, albeit less accessible and more regal and aloof. She even wore a similar outfit though hers was more decorated, its trims especially were embroidered with intricate designs.

"Oh, uh, sorry, I just… you startled me."

"Skittishness isn't a very laudable quality in a Vampire noble, dear," the woman scolded. "So tell me, why is a Vampire not of our blood in the presence of my daughter?"

"Oh, uh," Roë stammered, "I'm just her bodyguard." She hoped she wasn't 'just' that, but this explanation would have to do.

Her face still sour, Serana's mother pointed out, "I'm not sure my daughter needs any protection. And I assume you're running errands for my wonderful husband?"

"Lady Valerica," Roë said, "I just follow Serana. If she decides her father's requests are worth following – "

She snorted. "Harkon doesn't make requests, dear. Never has, and I don't think the years have been kind to his domineering nature."

Maybe not the best idea to go against this woman, but still, Roë said, "He's been nothing but civil… if a bit demanding?"

"Oh I'm sure he has been. But make no mistake, refusal was never an option."

Serana had closed the distance back to the doorway, and she greeted her mother with a reserved, "Mother."

"Yes, here you are then," Valerica turned to her daughter. "Took you quite a while. Very little to do around here, you know."

"You weren't exactly easy to find."

"That was the whole idea, silly girl. If I were, your kind and caring father might have gotten his hands on this." Her hand emerged from the darkness, holding the second Elder Scroll. Harkon had been right about that at least. "I had to flee here, to sacrifice everything to prevent my darling husband from completing the prophecy."

"But why?" Roë dared to ask. "I thought all Vampires were receptive to the idea of ending the tyranny of the Sun?"

"Only the callous," Valerica said, "or they who do not realize that the ritual comes at a price."

"What price, mother?"

"Serana, my dear. The Elder Scrolls are but the means to an end. I fled with two of them. One I gave to you, the Elder Scroll of the Sun, which I assume you now know speaks of Auriel and his arcane Bow. This one, the Elder Scroll of Blood, I kept with me. It speaks of how the daughter of Coldharbour will blind the eye of the Dragon."

"So that's either you or I, then?" Serana asked with her arms crossed, her expression curious. "Mentioned in an Elder Scroll. Now I feel flattered."

"Pardon me," Roë asked, "but what's a Daughter of Coldharbour?"

Serana tried to block the question by saying, "It's just a name – " but Valerica cut her off. "My daughter and I were human once. Devout followers of Molag Bal. And there is a tradition, on his summoning day, that – "

"Mother."

"Hush dear, there is no shame in the truth. There is a tradition that when Lord Molag Bal is summoned, all females be offered to him. It's a ritual that involves things more terrible than you can imagine. Very few survive the ordeal."

Serana bit her lip and looked away. Knowing Molag Bal's reputation, the ritual must have been gruesome in more ways than one. Dear Nine, poor Serana.

"Those who survive," Valerica continued, pride clear in her voice, "emerge as pure-blooded Vampires. These are called the Daughters of Coldharbour. Serana and I are, as far as I know, the only ones still in existence."

"And you both underwent this ritual willingly?"

Valerica chuckled. "You have much to learn about our ways, child. Being selected as an offering to Molag Bal is an immense honour. No one would willingly turn their back on such glory."

"No one would dare to," Serana hissed, still looking away, her face bearing a mixture of pain and anger. The realization that the Daedric Prince had tortured, broken and brutally violated beautiful Serana, stabbed Roë in the heart. She tried not to let images of Serana, on her hands and knees, screaming and weeping, into her mind, but the more she tried, the more clear they became. It made her feel physically ill, something she never thought she'd still feel.

"The prophecy stipulates one more thing," Valerica explained, unshaken and unmoved by her daughter's anguish at the memories. "The ritual for the Tyranny of the Sun doesn't require the presence of a Daughter of Coldharbour. It requires her blood."

"Oh," Roë said, Serana still silent and looking away. "It's not… that big a deal, is it? I'm sure either of you can spare – "

"All of it."

"… Oh." That was something different entirely. "But… does Harkon know?"

"Child," Valerica gave her a scolding look. "Why do you think I'm all the way out here? Why do you think I sealed Serana away?"

"Oh, so that was you…"

"It was. Harkon knows it all too well. And now so do you. Which means," she crossed her arms defiantly, "You'd have quite a treasure on your hands if you play your cards right."

That was true, Roë did feel like she had something extremely valuable, but not in the way Valerica meant. "What are you implying?"

I'm not implying, I'm saying that you got your gift from Harkon – don't try to fool me, I can tell – and he's sent you not to keep Serana safe, but to make sure you'll be able to reel her in when the moment comes. Harkon will not spare her. In his eye, she'll be dying a glorious death for the good of all Vampires. And his, of course. So what has he promised you?"

"Promised?" Roë echoed. "Nothing. I'm here because Serana asked me to be, nothing more."

Wearily, Serana said, still looking away, "That's true, mother."

"And using her blood for the ritual, if it kills her, that's something I'd never allow to happen," Roë said, meaning every word of it.

Valerica let out a haughty chuckle. "So pray tell, how exactly do you intend to complete the prophecy without the death of my daughter? Because her father will not permit you to abandon the mission he gave you."

Roë shot a look at Serana. "Maybe we can just flee, Hide somewhere he can't – "

"He'll find you, silly girl. You may be powerful, but you're a newly-hatched chick in terms of life experience. He's lived for thousands of years, and he's got a thousand more to search for you. Nowhere on Nirn is safe, and this place can't harbour all three of us. No amount of soul offerings would persuade the lords of this realm to allow that."

"Is there anything you can do to help us?" Roë asked, despite her aversion to asking this snooty woman for help.

"I can tell you that it's in your best interest to fulfil the prophecy partly. If you're going to challenge my husband, only Auriel's Bow can give you the power you need. It can work for Vampires, or in the right hands, against them."

"That's not what I meant," Roë said. "I meant something more practical. Like coming with us."

She shook her head. "I'm a Daughter of Coldharbour, like my own daughter. My presence on Tamriel is just as dangerous as Serana's. And forgive me, but I'm not about to provide aid to someone who could betray me to Harkon so easily."

"What makes you think I would – "

"The Tyranny of the Sun, as you've probably gathered by now, is more than a way to shield us from its terrible rays. The Vampire who completes the ritual will gain powers that are, for all intents and purposes, limitless." Her blazing eyes narrowed. "A fledgling like you, one of Harkon's blood, would see the ritual as a chance at deification. I doubt you'd let something as insignificant as the death of myself or my daughter dissuade you."

"Mother, please," Serana suddenly interjected, her face livid. "Roë's been the only one who's actually been a friend to me. My father, I just found out, plans to wring me for the last drop of blood, and my mother, instead of standing up for me, sealed me in a cave for years and years while she cowered in this miserable pit of a world. And even now, she refuses to come out of her hidey-hole because she's not entirely convinced that my friend, someone I vouch for, can be trusted."

Valerica crossed her arms and made a prissy face. "I don't know this person by hair nor plume. You can't expect me to – "

"Oh Mother, put a sock in it," Serana lashed out. "Without Roë, I'd still be in that sarcophagus, or worse, I'd have been exhumed by Vampire hunters or any of the conniving traitors that my father lets traipse around his court. She never wanted to be a part of this, she's not one of those schemers like all of you are."

Despite Serana's anger, it made Roë happy to hear Serana stand up for her.

"Everything I did," Valerica hissed, "I did for you! So you could be – "

"So I could be what?" Serana shouted. "You gave me to Molag Bal, you sealed me away for centuries, for my own good?"

"So you could be safe, and powerful!" Valerica snapped back.

Serana stood glaring at her mother for a few more moments, then said, "Forget it. We'll do this without you." She held out her hand. "You gonna give us the Elder Scroll at least?"

"Yes, I will," Valerica said, still glaring. "I must warn you though. Its guardian will not let it go so easily."

"Guardian?" Roë asked, thinking she'd been quiet for long enough.

"Durnehviir," Valerica told Roë, giving her a disdainful look. "He guards this place for the Ideal Masters, and he guards its treasures. Including the Elder Scroll. He will not stand for its removal."

"Who are the uh, Ideal Masters?" Roë asked, never having heard the name.

Valerica rolled her blazing eyes. "They are entities that reign over the Soul Cairn. I struck a deal with them to find refuge in this place, but they tricked me, trapping me inside this barrier along with the Elder Scroll. The Scroll can pass through, but I cannot. And I wouldn't even if I could. The barrier also hides me from my husband's scrying eyes."

Roë had one more question. "There's one thing I'm still a bit unclear about."

Valerica raised an impatient eyebrow.

Roë ignored her snooty behaviour and asked, "If fulfilling the prophecy would make you divinely powerful, why haven't you tried to fulfil it yourself?"

"Because, child, fulfilling the prophecy means darkening the sun forever. It would be ideal for Vampires, but the living would be much less served. Harkon claims it would be a Vampiric utopia where we could walk out in the open and fear nothing, but he chooses to ignore the fact that darkening the sun would call so much attention to our kind, that the situation would be untenable. Armies would be raised, nations would unite, all to destroy Vampirekind." She shook her head. "No, letting the prophecy come to fruition would be terrible for us in the long run. We must live in the shadows, as we always have. It's the only way we've survived for millennia already."

Looking away, Serana remarked, "That, or oblivious inside a sarcophagus."

"It was for your own – "

"Yes, yes. You said that already." She held out her hand again. "The Scroll, mother."

She nodded. "Be wary of Durnehviir. He is not some collection of shambling bones."

"I'm sure we'll be able to deal with him," Roë said confidently, even though she felt anything but. "Whatever he is."

"Very well. Best of luck, my daughter," Valerica said, holding one end of the Scroll out through the barrier.

Serana took it, and almost immediately, the sky darkened, and a distant rumbling could be heard.

"He comes," Valerica said. "I can't help from behind this barrier. You Bosmer, keep my daughter safe. You are responsible if anything happens to her."

"I can take care of myself, mother," Serana shouted over the wind that had suddenly appeared and intensified to a loud, howling gale, making their hair flap into their faces.

Roë looked on as a shape appeared in the darkened maelstrom of the sky, beating great and terrible wings. "Se… Serana. Durnehviir, it's…"

"A dragon," Serana completed. "We'll have to clean out our toes to take this one on."

The shape came closer, getting more and more immense as it did. There were actually dragons. They were actually real. All the power in the world couldn't save you from a massive beast that could swallow you whole.

"Don't be afraid, Roë," Serana shouted at her, over the howling wind. "Stand your ground. We will win this."

Yes, she had to believe they could. And she'd protect Serana to the death. She took out her shortsword and set her jaw as the enormous dragon landed, his wings sending up the dark purple dust-like material that covered the ground of the courtyard.

Rearing up, the dragon spread his wings and roared. Nine, he was as tall as a house when on all fours, now he was the height of a damn tower, four twisted horns making a mighty crest around his head.

"Outsiders," the dragon roared in a voice so powerful Roë felt the sound waves butting her in the chest. "Not one more step. The Ideal Masters will not let you take what is theirs so easily."

"Let us leave, dragon," Serana shouted back, unafraid. Her courage made Roë's fear diminish as well. "Or we will destroy you."

"I cannot. The Ideal Masters do not allow me to let anyone leave with their property," the dragon roared back. Was that reluctance Roë heard? "I must do my duty. Fight with honour, outsiders."

Up he went, launching his enormous form into the blackened sky, then sharply banking, coming about for a dive.

"We have to bring him down," Serana shouted. "If he stays in the air, it's a stand-off. He'll keep using his breath on us until we're charred or frozen or whatever it is he does."

"Well I only have a sword," Roë yelled back. "Maybe your magic can help?"

"It'll have to."

The dragon swooped down on them, and Roë had to use all her willpower to keep her legs from running away. His massive maw, set with teeth as large as her forearm, opened and a blast of darkness rushed out, like a great cone of dark, viscous nothing.

Roë dived out of the way, but as the dragon let his terrible breath sweep over the ground, it caught her prone form, washing over her. She tried to shield herself with her hands and legs, rolling into a ball, but the blast hit her full-on, and it was incredibly cold. It felt as if her energy was simply hammered out of her, as if all her muscles were paralyzed, her body going completely limp.

Then the dragon passed over her and climbed again.

"Roë!" Serana shouted. "Roë are you alright?"

Strength slowly returned to her muscles, but they were shaking and convulsing, the dark energy of the dragon's breath taking away their responsiveness. "I'm… I'm fine," Roë shouted with clattering teeth, even though she didn't feel fine at all. She got to her feet, still shaking, her shortsword loose in her trembling grip. "Just can't… can't take much more… of those."

"Hold on. I got him in the wing once. A few more and it'll hurt too much to fly."

Looking up, Roë indeed saw a viciously sharp icicle imbedded in the dragon's left wing. She staggered over to Serana, determined to take refuge behind the ward she'd protected herself with.

"Stay close," Serana ordered. "The ward can shield us both."

The dragon came down again and more terrible dark washed from his maw, but this time, the brunt of the attack was thrown aside by the ward Serana threw up, Roë shielding herself behind it. The dragon passed again and Serana launched another sharp ice shard, this time catching the beast in the other wing. Strangely, even though he didn't actually have any wing membranes, just the bone structure, he still flew. In fact, the entire dragon seemed to defy all natural laws, his skin cracked and decayed, bones even protruding at some points. How long had this creature languished in this realm?

"Rrgh, he's a stubborn one," Serana snarled, looking up at the dragon, still flying even though both the wings were transfixed with icy shards.

"This place is cold, right?" Roë shouted over the howling wind, "So maybe the ice doesn't have as much effect as it should."

"Possible," Serana yelled back. "Let me try something else."

Again the dragon came plummeting down, and again Serana erected her ward in the nick of time, although she had trouble maintaining its strength this time, and the coldness came partly through, numbing them both with its diminished power. Serana, however, still had the strength to summon a roaring cone of fire, which she swept across the dragon's belly and left wing.

This time, the magick had much more effect, and Durnehviir's wing failed him, causing him to stall mid-climb and come back down, crashing into one of the walls of the castle like a burning meteor, chunks of wall and whirlwinds of dust flying through the air as he tumbled spectacularly across the ground.

"He's down!" Serana shouted, doubled over. "Go! Get him! I need to get my strength back."

Even though she was scared to death, Roë charged the ailing dragon at full speed, ignoring her shaking muscles, trying to clear the distance before he could regain his footing. But just as she reached him, the beast got back on his four legs and turned to face her. She skidded to a stop just in time to avoid a claw sweep powerful enough to turn her into guts, and then managed to dive out of the way of another breath attack, the wave of emptiness passing harmlessly by her.

The dragon tried to turn his head to hit her again, but as he did, he roared in pain as the bones protruding from his neck, broken in the fall, ground together, making him unable to turn his maw towards her.

It had to be now.

Throwing herself forward with all her strength, Roë leapt past the dragon's head, dodged a blind swipe of his right claw and leapt onto his shoulder joint, thrusting her short sword down between its shoulder blades.

The beast roared, its head in the air, and she brought her weapon down again, this time feeling very clearly how the iron slid into the crack between two vertebrae and severed the nerves.

The roar silenced and the dragon's head, abruptly, fell to the ground, sending up a puff of dust as it came down.

"Whooah," Serana remarked, approaching as the wind died down. "That got 'im."

"I think so, yeah." The fear and stress coming out of Roë's body, combined with the dragon's breath still giving her the shakes, made her lean on the beast's body for support.

"That was some flashy action right there," Serana said with a grin.

"Heh, it was, if I do say so myself. That breath weapon though…"

"Uh huh. Good thing we're Vampires," Serana said with a nod. "If we'd been humans, with living bodies, those energies would have killed us stone dead."

Warmth suddenly heated up Roë's hand as the dragon underneath it began to give off a strange light.

"What the…"

Roë stepped back, and they both watched how the dragon's body first began to glow, so bright it made them squint, and then, as if it was paper in a fire, the dragon dissolved, its body disassembling into big flakes that floated upward, twisting and turning, until they simply glowed away, out of existence.

"That's… quite a sight," Serana remarked as the dragon was simply consumed into nothingness.

"You don't have much time," they heard Valerica's voice, as if she were right next to them although she was a hundred metres away. "Durnehviir cannot be destroyed, only stopped for a short time. He will reform, and try to keep you from leaving the Cairn again. Go, before he returns."

Serana only looked back at her mother and gave her a short nod. Then, the Scroll slung over her back, she said to Roë. "Come on, fearless dragon-slaying bodyguard. Let's give this place the laugh."

"Be glad to," Roë said, her chest swelling with pride when she realized she had, actually, slain a dragon. Serana had helped, or even been crucial, but still. Holy cack, she'd slain a dragon!

"When you're done feeling awesome," Serana said with a grin, "how 'bout you start running?"

And they did, though Roë had to walk at first as her muscles regained their strength and energy. Once she felt back to her old self, though, they ran, on and on through the dead realm of the Soul Cairn, their muscles, also dead, not feeling fatigue or lactic acid build-up, allowing them to sprint as fast as they could across the dead realm. They neither spoke nor looked back, and as they ran on, the dizzying steps back to the real world emerged from the mists on the horizon as a tiny tower of floating rocks climbing up to a brightly-lit hole in the dark purple sky.

"Just a little further," Serana pointed out, not even out of breath. It was still a few kilometres, but they were in the last quarter of the run, definitely.

"Don't jinx it," Roë laughed. "You know what happens when you go 'almost there'."

"Pft," Serana blew as she ran. "Then we kick his tail again. We did it once, right?"

They both knew they wouldn't stand a chance the second time, with Serana's magickal energies still low from all the double-casting, and Roë's luck probably not about to grant her a second lucky broken dragon-neck.

Still, their luck held for now, and they ran on, clearing the last distance until the floating rocks were about a kilometre away.

"A little longer," Serana said, "And we're in the clear blue."

But before Roë could answer something about 'the blue' no longer applying to them, the sky darkened again, the wind picking back up. "Ahhh, cack," she cursed.

"We're close!" Serana shouted, the floating rock staircase only a hundred metres away. "If we move fast before he arrives, we can – "

But the dark form of the otherworldly dragon, flying down and taking up a perch on the rocks leading to their world, made it pointless for Serana to finish her sentence.

Oh, they were cacked now. "Come on!" Roë shouted at the world around them, slapping her fists into her thighs. "So close!"

"I would speak to you both, Qahnoarin." The wind wasn't howling now, just playing with their hair soundlessly.

"Kahna-what?" Roë asked.

"Sheesh, Roë," Serana hissed. "The dragon wants to talk, don't upset him. Let him talk, anything's better than fighting again."

"You are Qahnoarin," the dragon explained. "Vanquisher. The ones who defeated me in battle. It is a title of the utmost honour."

"Well, uh," Roë answered, "You didn't make it easy on us."

"I am honoured to hear you say so," the dragon said back. "I have no wish to fight you again, nor does my honour allow it."

"Well that's good," Serana said from the corner of her mouth.

"I would ask a boon of you."

"Uh… sure?" Roë said. This dragon wanted them to do him a favour? "What uh, what is it you require?"

The dragon shifted on his perch, a few metres above Roë and Serana. It was curious how human he looked when he did so. "For countless years, I have roamed this realm, snared into service to the Ideal Masters. I have been a prisoner here for centuries, in utter darkness and solitude."

"Aw come on," Serana said to Roë. "Now he's making me feel bad."

"There's always more to our enemies than meets the eyes, I s'pose."

"Once, I roamed the skies over Tamriel," the dragon continued. "I felt the sun on my scales, the rain on my wings. If I could but return there, for just a short while. To see light again, feel clean air, not this putrid miasma."

"I don't uh… assume you can just leave?" Roë asked.

"If I only could," Durnehviir lamented. "I am forever in the service of the Ideal Masters. But there is another servitude, another duty I must now fulfil. One that transcends my debt to the Ideal Masters. If the Thu'um compels me, then I must respond, however briefly, and even the Ideal Masters cannot stop me."

If the what compelled him? "Forgive us," Serana asked, the same question Roë had, "but what's a Thu'um?"

"It… it is the shout of the Dragons," Durnehviir stammered, as if he was surprised at having to explain such a simple fact. "If you shout my name to the heavens when you feel the time is right, with the honour I bestow on you, I will appear at your side, instantly and faithfully, as your Grah-Zeymahzin, not your servant, but your ally."

"So…" Roë asked, "All we have to do is shout your name when we're back in Tamriel?"

"Yes," the dragon said. "Use it as you would any other Thu'um."

"Uh," Serana said, "I'm sorry to have to say this, but we… don't know how to use the uh… Thu'um."

The dragon was silent for a moment, sitting motionless on its perch. "Then… neither of you are Dovahkiin?"

"Dragonborn?" Roë asked. "No, that's… not us, I'm afraid."

Durnehviir hung his head, and Roë actually felt sorry for the monster. "Then hope will remain idle. Only the Dragonborn may use the Thu'um, and you are not Dragonborn. And so my imprisonment continues with no respite."

Yeah, now Roë definitely felt sorry for the creature. And from the looks of her, so did Serana.

"I have no more to ask of you then, and I must continue my vigil," the dragon said, slowly spreading his wings to take off.

"Wait, wait," Serana said. "For what it's worth, apparently there is a Dragonborn out there somewhere."

The dragon looked at them with renewed interest.

"Yes, there is," Roë said, having heard the stories even before Lord Harkon had warned them about the Dragonborn. "One's been discovered a year or two ago. Maybe if you could reach out somehow?"

"From this prison? That will not be possible," the dragon said. "But if you would do me the honour, as my Qahnoarin, to issue my challenge to this Dragonborn, I would be eternally grateful."

Serana asked, "You… want us to tell the Dragonborn to come hack away at you?"

"I cannot be Grah-Zeymahzin to one who is not my Qahnoarin. Only one who has bested me can have my allegiance."

"So a dragon wants the Dragonborn to trot over and beat the stuffing out of him," Serana said quietly to Roë. "This is some crazy world we live in."

"Magnificent, isn't it?"

"Mm." Louder again, she told the dragon, "We'll uh, try to pass the message along, but we can't make any promises. The Dragonborn's… not really a friend to our kind, it seems."

"You will find a way," the dragon said. "I'm confident you will."

With that, he launched himself up into the air and flew away, merging with the dark purple sky, leaving Roë and Serana alone at the edge of this otherworld. When Roë looked up, she could see her own familiar realm through the tiny hole so high up.

"Serana."

"Mm?"

"Can we leave this place and go back to our world?"

"Best idea ever."