Kindred Judgment

Outside the Chapel of Auri-El

"You weren't wrong about this Snow Elf's blood," Fura said to Roë as they walked. "I needed this boost for ages."

"Glad you're feeling better." She wasn't really able to care about Fura right now, but it was a good thing she'd be in good condition to fight soon. They needed all the manpower they could get. And that was if the other vampires in the Castle stayed out of it. They could probably commit their coup and depose Harkon before the other Vampires could intervene, but Modhna would definitely be a problem. They'd have to deal with her.

"Bitch Modhna's going to pay for stealing my place and my dogs," Fura muttered fiercely.

Roë certainly hoped so. Serana, meanwhile, had taken off back towards the Castle, walking along with her head down. It was hard to accept, but there would never be a "Roë and Serana". Not ever. They'd have to deal with the aftermath of the battle with Harkon, provided they'd survive, of course. Would they simply part ways? Who would get ownership of the Castle? It would make sense that Serana was left in charge, after all, it was her family, but then again… Of the two of them, Roë was the Vampire Lady. Serana, her age and power notwithstanding, was… well… just another vampire.

"So what, do we just… storm the front gate?" Fura asked. "or do you have a plan?"

"Not as such," Roë said, "but I do know there's a secret entrance that leads to the courtyard. We used ot ti get to the laboratory Serana's mother used to occupy. That would let us circumvent most of the Castle at least. After that…"

"I thought you could fly in your… other form?" Fura asked.

"No. Only just above the ground. You know. Levitate."

"Levitation isn't a possibility," Garen Marethi said, falling into step next to them, "There were potions and spells for it once, but the secret is lost to the ages and none have been able to replicate it since."

"No, I was talking about… nevermind."

"We could climb," Fura suggested.

Roë had to hand it to her. For being reduced to a chunk of vampiric charcoal only an hour ago, she sure had spirit to suggest climbing in her condition. The Snow Elf blood had healed her greatly, but her face was still a crater landscape of burst and discoloured skin.

"I… suppose we could," Garen Marethi ruminated. "But climbing… I don't know."

Roë shrugged. "What's the danger? You could fall, get hurt, be forced to burn blood to heal. Not like a fall can kill us, right?"

"It could," Garen said. "If it's from high enough."

"The stones are big, uneven and rough," Fura said. "The seams are deep and worn with time and wind and rain. It'll be an easy climb. I've warned Lord Harkon for it several times but he simply laughed it off." She was silent for a moment. "I don't think he'll be laughing much when we climb through the window of his throne room."

"It could work," Roë agreed. "We enter through the secret entrance, and then, from the courtyard, climb up to the throne room. With any luck, we'll only have Harkon to deal with. Possibly Modhna too."

"If she's there," Fura said, "I hope she has the hounds with her."

Garen blinked. "Why?"

With a mysterious smile, Fura only said, "I'm rather convinced they'll listen to me more than they listen to her."

"Meanwhile," Garen said, "I intend to be far from useless, though you may consider me so."

She did, but didn't say it. "How's that?"

"You spoke of a laboratory, yes? I'm sure I can, if allowed to spend a short moment in there, produce all kinds of useful chemical devices to make your infiltration and subsequent deposing of Lord Harkon considerably easier." He quickly corrected, "Errr. Our infiltration, of course."

"That's more like it," Roë grunted.

"Of course," Fura pointed out, "We'll have to pass the plan by Lady Serana first. She might have objections."

"Serana can stuff her objections in any orifice she likes," Roë said to that, immediately regretting it.

"Oh, right," Fura said with a roll of her eyes. "I forgot, you two are twelve years old."

Before Roë realized it, her hand shot out, grabbing Fura by the collar and lifting her up with next to no effort, even as the skin on her shoulder seared with unhealed burns. "You shut your damn mouth, bitch." Who the fuck did she think she was, judging her or Serana?

The girl didn't resist or struggle, just quietly breathed, "This doesn't help anyone. Let me go, alright?"

Reluctantly, she released the girl, who only shrugged her clothes back into form and muttered, "Touchy, aren't we?"

"Fura," Garen said patiently, "these are trying times for all of us, especially… well. We should concentrate on Lord Harkon, not on each other."

Roë heard herself adding, "That means shut up and walk."

"Alright," Fura said quietly. "Apologies, Lady Roë, that was… childish of me."

"Mm."

"She means well," Garen Marethi added. "Fura just has… very little patience for theatrics and drama."

Were these two deliberately trying her patience? "Are you saying I'm being dramatic?" she snapped.

"No, no…" he assured her quickly. "Badly chosen words. I just mean…" his eyes quickly went to Fura, as if making sure he had her approval, "Fura simply isn't… well versed in the emotional aspect of things."

"Am too."

With a chuckle, Garen simply said, "What were you saying about being twelve?"

A short grunt from Fura ended the conversation.

They slept in an abandoned log cabin that still provided protection from the sun, Fura returning before sunrise with a deer, half torn-apart, and her face and chin bloody. She was recuperating well. The deer blood invigorated Roë too, and the initially excruciating pain in her shoulder was now a mere patch of whiny, throbbing, hard, scabbed skin. A few more meals and she'd be good as new.

Fura and Garen exchanged a few words during the walk back to the Castle, but Roë and Serana were silent, each occupied with their own thoughts and feelings. In between pining, Roë found herself thinking of her parents, hoping they were alright. Better than Roë herself, doubtless. She'd give anything to be with them now, during those few days off that coincided, sitting in the tiny little patch of garden behind Roë's tiny little house, enjoying cheap wine and talking about all kinds of things. She'd had too few of those days. Too little time.

How would she ever explain all this to them? They'd be worried after a while, even though they knew their daughter could take care of herself. And they'd find out their daughter had gone missing from the guard. After some digging, they'd learn that she'd went off to join the Dawnguard with a colleague who had then turned up dead, and then disappeared herself.

She couldn't leave her parents to worry like that. She'd write a little something just letting them know she was still alive. Alive. What a joke.

It would have to be done before they confronted Harkon. It didn't matter much to her if she survived or not, but she'd have to make sure her parents were at least reassured she was alright, even if she really wasn't.

A few bandits had provided some fine sustenance before sunrise, sleeping in their makeshift camp and easily crept up on. Roë had resisted the urge to overfeed, to which she was at least a little bit relieved, and Garen had complained about being stuck with the Khajiit and having to pick fur out of his teeth for hours afterward, but the bandits hadn't even been disturbed in their sleep and would never know what a great help they'd been. They were probably a few of those morons who tried to extort a hundred septims from a Volendrung-wielding demigod clad in armour worth ten thousand times that.

They'd reached the misty shore, and followed it east so they could get to the rowboat. As the jetty came into view, however, Serana stopped and held up a hand, the Bow on her back.

"What's wrong?" Roë asked.

Serana crouched, and the others instinctively did the same. "There. He's got a bunch of flunkies waiting for us." They stood right at the end of the jetty, which was encased in ice all the way to the end, the boat just barely in the water.

They'd have to be really, really powerful flunkies to even hope to stand a chance against Serana and Roë. "Oh please. They're probably quaking in their shoes already just from knowing we'll show up sooner or later. I say we smear them all over the rocks and done."

Fura agreed. "They'll probably be vampires I hate anyway."

Serana did not share their preference for a head-on approach, sighing impatiently. "Yes. By all means let's do that, so Harkon definitely knows we're coming. Did you really think he put those mooks there to stop us? He wants us to arrive, but he also wants to know exactly when and where."

Garen took her side. "You can be certain that at least one of them has instructions to bolt for the Castle, or light a big signal fire as soon as they see us."

"We'll have to evade them," Serana said, peering at them from behind the large boulder they were crouched behind. "Can't believe you two actually need me to spell this out for you."

Roë felt her teeth clench together.

"Perhaps you should also spell it out to us how we're going to evade them," Fura asked, her tone bordering on the insolent, "if you're so enlightened."

Serana turned her head and her eyes flashed. "Watch your mouth."

"We're not in the Castle anymore, Lady Serana. We're both indebted to the Lady Roë for taking us out of that horrible pit, but the fact of the matter", Fura said, somehow able to be both fierce and respectful at the same time, "is that we're four vampires risking our unlives together for a common goal. I've always respected you, Lady Serana, but treating us like cretins won't win you much loyalty."

There was a brief silence, and eventually Serana grudgingly conceded, "I suppose you're right."

"We're all rogue vampires right now," Garen agreed. "There will be plenty of time for hierarchy and protocol when this is done."

"Yes, alright, alright."

"So, Serana," Roë asked, making her sneering tone just audible enough, "How are we going to evade these cronies? They're staked out at the boat, and I sure hope your suggestion isn't to swim?"

"No," Serana said impatiently. "But they're standing on ice, no land underneath. If that ice were to start trembling and cracking…"

"Ooh!" Fura went, her previous indignation forgotten, "can you actually make them fall into the water too?"

"We just need them to run for solid ground," Serana said. "But… why not?"

"What if they run to the jetty?" Garen asked. It was a fair question.

"They won't," Serana said, the ice cold wind playing with her hair. "I'll make sure the cracks originate from there." She was silent for a moment, peering at the three vampires. "They should run for the jutting piece of rock there, away from the boat."

"They'll still see us taking the boat though," Roë pointed out.

"Visibility is limited," Garen said, "but yes, they'll see us going for the boat."

Serana turned around with a grin. "Not if we get to the boat by water."

Fura grunted in disappointment. "So we are swimming?"

"Yes. Until we're out of sight. They'll see us if we head to the boat overland, but with this limited visibility, they'll never see the boat float away, led by unseen hands."

"Let's get to it then," Roë said, annoyed at the prospect but conscious enough to realize that what irritated her the most was the fact that she never had ideas like those.

Serana cloed her eyes and concentrated. She'd have to weave a spell that was both powerful and subtle. Strong enough to crack the ice, but of a low enough profile to not alert the flunkies to its presence.

With a sharp intake of breath, Serana opened her eyes and grabbed Roë's shoulder for balance. "This is difficult. Let me try again."

Her hand came off Roë's shoulder. The brief touch of her hand had stirred all kinds of feelings in Roë and she had to force them back down.

"Right. For real this time," Serana muttered. Nothing happened for a while, but then a very low, quiet rumbling sounded, the ground beneath them beginning to slowly vibrate.

"That tickles," Fura remarked.

Serana grunted, and with a loud, hard crack, the ice around the jetty broke, sending puffs of snow up into the mist.

A few moments later, they heard the flunkies raise their voices in panic, and sure enough, they bolted for the rocky outcropping, away from the jetty. Roë was almost angry that Serana's plan was succeeding, but realized she was only being angry with herself.

"Let's go," Garen said. "To the water."

Even though she protested with, "I may not have much use for my tits anymore, but that doesn't mean I want them to freeze off," Fura followed him, creeping towards the edge of the ice shore. Roë sneaked after them, after verifying that Serana had gotten over her exertion and could follow.

"This… is… cold," Fura peeped, her teeth chattering, as she lowered herself into the water.

"It's a welcome change from the sun pit," Garen pointed out, even as his speech slowed and went slurred from the cold.

Roë lowered herself in too, and it was like the water pressed her flat, the cold biting at her skin and stabbing through to her bones. Y'ffre, this was horrible.

"Just keep moving," Serana said between gritted teeth. "Hypothermia can't kill us, but without body heat, the cold will immobilize us if we don't move." She added, "But bugger me with a fish fork, this is cold."

"The s… sooner we reach the boat," Fura said, going blue as she made her way, "the sooner we're out of this misery." She swum like a dog, paddling her feet and hands underneath her body.

"Wh… what kind of way of sw… swimming is th.. that, Fura?" Garen laughed through his agony. "You sw… swim doggies."

"It's the only way I know how, alright?" Fura snapped back. "We weren't all born on some volcanic shithole island."

"Come on, move," Serana chuckled. As she glided through the water with an elegant breaststroke. "We stop moving, we're going to the bottom, probably forever."

"That's… possibly the worst prospect ever," Fura muttered.

Roë shot a look at the vampires Lord Harkon had posted, sticking her head out above the ice, and saw them huddled on the rock, only vague shapes in the night mist. The cold felt like it was in her insides, freezing them solid. It was as if sharp lances of cold slowly impaled her nethers. Her muscles, too, became more and more difficult to move, and she could literally feel them turning to ice.

The boat came closer, Fura muttering all kinds of terrible curses as she lost her place in the lead and was overtaken by all three vampires, who actually were capable of more than doggie-paddling. Serana and Roë reached the boat almost simultaneously, with Garen following closely behind. Serana cut the rope and they began pushing the boat out, paddling with their feet. Fura reached them a bit later, only barely keeping above water. Her movements were slow and lazy-looking. "I'm fr… freezing," she slurred, slowly and feebly. "Can't… move."

Roë felt her muscles slowly lock up too. "S… Serana, we h… have to get in the boat or we're… spending eternity on th… the bottom of the sea." She heard herself speak and her voice sounded like she was falling asleep. It was exactly how she felt, too.

"They… can still see us," Serana slurred back."

"Have to… take the risk," Garen breathed. "Muscles… turning to ice."

Roë felt the cold overtake her. It was the first time since her death that she'd felt genuinely sleepy. Perhaps sleeping the ages away, frozen at the bottom of the sea, was not such a bad fate after all. She'd be at peace, just resting for all eternity.

She didn't feel the cold, just drowsiness. She had trouble keeping her eyes open, her body completely numb. She just… wanted... to… sleep.

Closing her eyes, she let the water take her, slowly sinking downwards and giving herself to the sea.

She was entirely at peace with what was happening, for the first time the beast inside her slept, unable to stop her from letting go, from letting her body go under in the ice cold water, never to come up again.

Perhaps this was the best way for all of this to end.

There was no more feeling in her entire body, and it was a curious feeling. As if she was alone with nothing but her mind. Weightless, painless, griefless.

A jerking motion rattled her back to the world as her body was lifted up out of the water by three pairs of hands. She opened her eyes and saw the misty night sky.

"Almost got away from us there," she heard Garen Marethi say.

"A little deeper and we wouldn't have been able to retrieve you," Fura added.

She was still ice cold and numb, but she was out of the water. She saw Garen take one of the oars, Serana attempting to row the other with slow and powerless muscles.

Damn these three. She'd almost had the release she'd hoped for.

After a bit, when they were somewhat further out to sea, Serana risked conjuring a small flame to hover in the air, the four vampires huddled around it, almost entirely frozen. It wasn't much, but at least they could move somewhat normally again. Serana promised to conjure something bigger once they were safely out of sight, in the cave leading to the laboratory. They'd need the warmth to climb.

They were a procession of misery when the boat finally reached the rocks near the secret passage. The instant they were done hoisting their numb bodies up the rocks, Serana was all but threatened with death into conjuring up some warmth, the vampire's fear of fire utterly forgotten. By the time they were all warmed to a semi-acceptable level, dawn lit up the cave mouth, at a safe distance from them. The passage was more than safe enough to sleep in, and so they did, lying down on the cold, hard rocks as the lethargy of day overtook them.

Roë woke to the light of a dancing flame, Serana sitting by it, warming her hands. She briefly looked back at Roë and then to the fire. Fura and Garen were still lying in torpor.

"What time is it?" Roë asked, dragging herself toward the flame.

"Just past dusk," Serana said flatly.

"Hey, Serana, look, I…"

Serana only shook her head, still looking at the flame. "We've both made mistakes and we both made it difficult for each other, but it's beyond fixing now."

"Why? It doesn't have to be? I mean, we might not survive this night. Can't we at least… I don't know, stop being bitches towards each other?"

Serana only gave her a brief look before settling her eyes on the flame again. "You're the one being rotten, not me."

"Come on, that's – "

"Roë. I'm grateful for what you've done for me. I always will be. But you've changed and I don't like the direction in which you have. Not one bit."

"I'm trying my best to adapt to all of this. Do you think this is easy f – "

"No, Roë. I don't think it's easy. But…" she brought her face closer to Roë and said quietly, "I'm scared for you. And of you."

"Wh… what?" Roë blurted incredulously. Was she serious? Had she not paid attention when Roë had laid her heart bare? "I could never hurt you, Serana. I can't believe you'd think such a thing."

"Not right now, no," Serana said, unmoving. "But in a week? In a month? Roë, you're losing your mind. I can see it in the way you lool, in the way you act. This change doesn't stop once it's started, and what might seem unthinkable to you now, will be perfectly fine as time passes. I warned you over and over and you didn't listen. And that's why we have to part ways after this. Because I don't want events to lead us to a confrontation."

"So you're just giving up on me?"

She sighed. "I still care about you, Roë. And I wish all this hadn't happened, but it did, and that's the reality of it. We're deposing my father for the safety of both of us, but no more than that. We're temporary allies, that's all."

"You're just giving up on me."

"I don't want to have to kill you, Roë!" Serana shouted suddenly. "And this is the only way, now let! It! Go!"

"I take it the night has already fallen?" Garen Marethi grunted, bothered by all the noise.

"It has," Roë said, getting to her feet. "We're moving. Once Harkon's dealt with, you'll be rid of me forever." In frustration and self-pity, she kicked the sleeping Fura in the ribs. "Get up. It's time."

With a grunt, Fura woke up, her hand on her brow. "Who just kicked me?"

"Nevermind," Serana said. "We have to get this over with. Are we ready?"

"Not yet," Garen said. "We should pass by this laboratory first. We can warm ourselves there and I can see what I can concoct in the meantime."

Serana led them to the courtyard and from there into the laboratory.

"Think Harkon's lookouts noticed by now that the boat is gone?"

Serana shrugged. "Probably not, and even if they did, they probably just think it drifted off on its own."

"Let's hope so," Roë muttered.

While Garen Marethi mixed all kinds of substances, his choice limited to what was still more or less useable after so long, the three women sat silently at another of Serana's dancing flames. It seemed to take forever, but given Garen's limited means, took only an hour or so in reality.

It was time. They proceeded back into the courtyard, Serana running her hands over the stones. Above them was Lord Harkon's throne room, blind to the courtyard without windows looking out over it. "It'll work. Stones are plenty rough. Is everyone suitably warmed up? It's going to be a serious climb."

Roë merely nodded, Fura remarked that what waited at the end of the climb would make the actual scaling seem like a joke, and Garen, glass bottles hanging at his side, merely said he was as ready as he'd ever be.

They started the climb. The stones were, indeed, rough and jutting, the seams deep and eroded. It was fairly easy, insofar as an unsecured climb of a wall thirty metres high could be easy. The wind tugged at their clothes, and Roë took care not to look down under any circumstance, but they made decent progress. Thankfully, no one appeared to be afraid of heights, and one positive aspect about being a vampire was that muscles experienced next to no fatigue.

Serana climbed first, gracefully and fluently, first getting to the right height, then moving horizontally along the tower to reach the window that looked out on the sea behind the Castle. Once there, she hung in place, waiting for the others. Garen took slightly longer, weighted down by the glass bottles, but eventually they were all in position.

"We can't waste any time," Serana said. "We hit fast and hard. We'll have our hands full against him alone, even when there's four of us. If others can come to his aid… well…" her voice trailed off and sadness came over her face.

"You alright, Lady Serana?" Garen asked.

Serana nodded, hanging from the wall. "Yes. It's just…"

"He's still your father," Fura said, sounding unusually empathic for her doing.

"Exactly." She took a breath and set her jaw. "But this has to happen. Good to go?"

Silently, Roë and the others acknowledged their readiness.

"Then go!"

Simultaneously, they pulled themselves over the window ledges, and inside.

They took Harkon completely by surprise, entering the back of his audience chamber, behind his throne.

"What? How did you…" Harkon barked, leaping up and turning around. His surprise only lasted a second, and he fell back into his role right away. "Serana, you… brought the Bow?" His smile was amiable, if nervous, but they all knew it was fake, and he knew they knew. Still, he held out his hand. "Give it to me, Serana. Give me the Bow."

"You're not getting it."

"Yes, I am. You're my daughter and – "

"We're not here to give you the Bow, father. We're here to use it against you."

He snarled, "These two worthless wastes of dead skin, fine. But you? My daughter? Is this what I get for my trust? For the faith I placed in you? And you, Lady Roë, for all the power I've given? You reward me with treachery?"

Serana shook her head. "No, father. I know what your intentions are with me. You've lied to me from the start. I know what the final step of the ritual entails."

He lowered his head, his blazing eyes burning at his daughter. "You will give me the Bow, and your blood, or I will take it from you."

"There are four of us, father. There is still a chance for surrender."

Harkon let out a bellowing laugh. "Indeed there is, and you still have the opportunity to offer it."

"It ends now."

All four sprang into action at the same time. Serana launched a sharp ice spear at her father, Garen took one of the bottles off his belt and pulled his arm back to throw, and Roë stormed her Vampire Lord along with Fura.

Even as he changed, Harkon easily batted both Fura and Roë away, sending them flying back several metres. His other arm smashed the icy projectile to bits mid-flight, and in the same movement, he caught the bottle Garen had thrown, launching it back right at him.

Garen dived out of the way, avoiding the blast as the vial smashed and exploded, the volatile chemicals blowing the container apart. Serana drew the Bow, but Harkon, now changed fully into his monstrous Vampire Lord form, cleared the distance to her with two lightning-fast leaps, his fist striking Serana so hard she was lifted off her feet and thrown against a pillar, her back hitting it with a horrible cracking sound. Garen readied another bottle, but before he could throw, Harkon had taken a bronze chandelier in his massive claw and with a back-handed throw, launched it at Garen, hitting him straight on the forehead and sending him down in a spray of blood.

She had to shift. There was nothing else for it.

Screaming in pain as her bones snapped and her muscles stretched and tore, Roë assumed the form of the Vampire Lady, the only creature that could match its Lord in power. Her blood spattered in all directions as her skin tore and merged anew.

"Lord Harkon!"

Modhna had stormed in to investigate the ruckus, and Fura immediately picked herself up off the floor and charged the new arrival, her mace held high, shouting at Harkon's servant just how dead she would soon be.

Her body throbbing with power and pain, Roë leapt at Harkon, smacking into him just in time to stop him from stomping Serana's head flat. They rolled over the ground, Roë's body still sore and torn, but she did find the strength to punch Harkon right in the face.

The Vampire Lord hoisted Roë into the air and roared, his voice distorted and warped with sheer power, "You are nothing. You have the form, but not the power! Not the will! Not the blood!"

His claw hooked around her throat, unimaginable power slowly constricting her. She didn't need the air, but the pressure was so intense her neck felt like it would snap, even as strong and massive as it was. Her massive clawed feet kicked the air.

"I'll spill your guts!"

He drew his free claw back to open Roë wide, but she pulled her knees up and kicked him in the chest as hard as she could, her massive grey-skinned legs smacking into his ribcage, wrenching the bulging, misshapen muscles lying over it and breaking several ribs. He was forced to let go and she fell to the ground along with him.

As she regained her footing, her eye briefly shot past Fura and Modhna, rolling over the ground fighting.

A bright streak of blinding golden light flashed in between Roë and Harkon, missing the Vampire Lord's head by mere breadths of a hair. Serana shook from the pain, lying on the ground with her back broken, but tried frantically to draw the Bow again..

Roë and Harkon both got to their feet at the same time, throwing themselves at each other and impacting in mid-air, Harkon's massive claw tearing across Roë's chest, and her talons shearing open his face. Their bodies collided and they fell to the ground, clawing at each other as they went.

Pain exploded from Roë's forearm as Harkon's maw closed on it and bit the bones instantly into splinters. She heard herself let out an inhuman roar of pain, and with her other hand, she reflexively smacked her fist into the side of Harkon's head. She struck him just in time to open his jaw and keep him from tearing her arm clean off.

He threw her off him, sending her sailing through the air, and as she came down, he pounced on her like a great cat. Before he could reach her, an exploding bottle hit him, knocking him aside and sending him crashing to the ground, blood trailing behind him. At the same time, another bright golden streak of light cut through the air where he would have been had the bottle not sent him flying to the side.

Before he could scramble to his feet, however, Roë threw herself at him, thrusting her remaining claw into the gaping wound made by the grenade, which had torn his shoulder and part of his chest and belly open. He wailed in agony and Roë twisted her claw back and forth, blood spurting up in her face.

The brief moment of paralysis would be his last. Biting the horrible pain everywhere in her body, Roë sprang upright and raised her leg, sending her clawed foot down right on his torn face. The felt the skull crack as the stomp came down, and Harkon let out a muffled, broken scream. She pounded her foot down again, and this time she felt the Vampire Lord's jaw snap in two. Another kick. And another. And with the last one, she felt the skull give way in its entirety, and her clawed foot flattened the exposed mass of soft, weak tissue, crushing his brain, his eyeballs, and everything else in his head, blood flying in all directions, creating a dark red star on the stone floor.

She withdrew her foot and went to one knee, unable to keep standing upright.

Garen Marethi lowered the glass grenade he was ready to throw, and Fura, swaying on her feet, pulled Modhna's sword from its owner's chest, her revenge achieved.

"We... we won," she cheered, her face and chest red with Modhna's blood almost unable to believe it herself. But then her eyes went wide. "Lady Roë, watch out!"

Roë whipped her head to the side just in time to see the bright flash of golden light coming towards her, and she threw her body backwards, smacking into the stones with her shoulders as the sunhallowed arrow cut the air above her.

Serana, weeping in pain, tried to pull the bowstring again, but with her back broken, she didn't have the time before Roë lurched towards her and put her foot on the Bow, and Serana's wrist.

Several vampires stormed in, but Roë bellowed at them, "Lord Harkon is destroyed. Back off or you'll join him!" Even in her brutally injured state, she could probably still hold off these lesser, thin-blooded mongrels. And they knew it, backing away and leaving the same way they'd come in.

She turned back to the woman lying at her feet. The one who had dared to murder her. "And you!" she roared, pulling her claw back, ready to swipe Serana's head off. "What's keeping me from…"

She couldn't finish her sentence and her claw hung in the air. She knew the face looking up at her, even in its despair, pain and grief. This was Serana. Beautiful Serana. She'd tried to… How could she have…

"I'm sorry, Roë," Serana wept, her hand still pinned. "But I had to. I had to try. I can't bear to see you… turning into… into…"

"So you'd destroy me instead? Shoot the very sun into my head?"

"It… it would have been a short pain, and then you'd be at peace. I had to try and… save you from what you'll become."

"I don't need saving!" she bellowed. "And I'll prove it to you!"

Serana lay awaiting her fate.

It was the best proof she could give. "You'll get blood to heal your back, and then you can leave unharmed. I said I could never hurt you, and I meant it. But… why, Serana? Why?"

Serana could say nothing and laid her forehead on the stone floor.

"Fura, Garen, take her out of here. Give her the blood she needs. The Bow stays here. I will not have you using it against me."

Roë lifted her foot off Serana's hand, and without a word, the two dragged Serana away, the elder vampire biting the pain without a sound. She'd shift back to her humanoid form when she was alone, and put on fresh clothes before anyone could see her.

"When she's out the gates," Roë called after them, "you both have the honour of announcing that Castle Volkihar has a new Lady."