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Chapter 22 - Ghostblade
"So, what're we going after?" Serana asked at their evening planning conference.
"Two primary objectives before I get too large for my armor," Yssha replied with a grin. "Eliminate the last Dragon Priests, then see about reforging the Gauldur Amulet, now that we have only one more piece to retrieve. I have a feeling that the reforging will be the most difficult, so normally I would say to go for it first, but ... I do not know about you three, but while I have trained back to fighting condition, I have been in no actual combat since before my capture. So I personally would prefer to start with the Dragon Priests, difficult as those can be. Then the third amulet fragment, and finally the reforging."
"Same here," Marcurio said with a grin. "A couple of bandit gangs and a giant while you were gone, but with so many fighters here, I didn't see much combat myself. Mostly my experience has been sparring with Ahkrinbo's riders."
"We're in no better shape," Nevan said wryly. "One giant down in Blackreach, but otherwise just sparring. So I agree, we should start with the simple stuff."
"Hmm." Serana frowned. "Then maybe we should start off with something even simpler, just to get back in practice working together before we hit a Dragon Priest."
Yssha didn't particularly like that suggestion, but she did have to admit it had considerable merit. "A couple of bounty hunts? Or perhaps Lady Meridia has a suggestion, so we can get that practice against the sort of undead we are likely to encounter going against the Dragon Priests."
"A most excellent idea," a voice said from a glowing ball that appeared in apparent response to Yssha's words. "There is a long-lost barrow at Ansilvund, which is currently home to a necromancer become Vampire Lord, and a large number of draugr. So you can practice against both types of undead."
Serana bowed. "That sounds ideal, Lady Meridia. Thank you."
"It is you who will have my thanks for freeing them, my champion - you and those with you." The glowing orb's attention went to Yssha. "You should not discourage worship, Stormcrown. I foresee you needing the strength it gives you, that you may aid others as you wish."
Yssha groaned inwardly, but bowed. "Very well, Lady ... I will accept your advice, and no longer discourage it." She still wouldn't encourage it, though ... and she'd remind Talos of his promise to divert anything she didn't actually need.
There was a musical laugh from the orb. "Good enough." Then it vanished.
"Taking advice from a Daedric Prince?" Marcurio asked, one eyebrow raised.
"When it parallels what Bormah and Talos tell me, for all practical purposes? Yes, I see no harm acknowledging that I will follow it." She shook herself briefly. "So ... we leave for Ansilvund tomorrow after breakfast, unless I hear objections."
There were none, so she and Marcurio rose. "In the morning, then."
It was both odd and very pleasant to be meeting Odahviing with her original team again, Yssha thought, and she smiled when he gape-grinned at seeing them. "Nevan, Serana - my other clan-sibs ride me into battle again? It is good."
Serana smiled. "We think so, too, brod-zeymah. We've enjoyed our work down in Blackreach, and I owe my new leg to it, but ... we've also missed our adventuring out in the open air of Nirn. We're going to Ansilvund to refresh our team combat techniques."
"It is well." Odahviing crouched so they could mount, then leaped into the air. Not long afterward, he was landing at what looked more like a mine entrance than a typical Nordic ruin, and crouched again so the team could dismount.
As soon as they did, he left and they entered Ansilvund, to find themselves in a large chamber with scaffolding that reminded Yssha of the Saarthal excavation, an impression strengthened by the tools laying around. She spotted a draugr that looked like it was guarding some dead frostbite spiders. It hadn't noticed them yet, so she silently unslung and readied her crossbow, then fired. It fell, fortunately not attracting any others.
After checking the chamber for small loot - they found a couple of potions, and a chest with a fair amount of coins and gems - they headed up a ramp, where they found another draugr patrolling. She didn't want to Shout unless she had to - better to remain undetected as long as they could - so she gestured for Serana to take it down with Dawnbreaker.
Unfortunately, that turned out to be one of the times that killing an undead with it set off a fiery explosion, and Yssha sighed. So much for trying to be stealthy! She re-slung her crossbow and drew her mace, and they continued through a short passageway into a chamber where two draugr were at the far wall mining, supervised by a mage who apparently hadn't heard Dawnbreaker, because he was grumbling about having to supervise the workers.
It was rare to encounter a foe with so little situational awareness, but maybe he was deaf? Still, this was no time for speculation; just take advantage of their good fortune. She took care of the mage while the others sent spells at the draugr.
They went through a winding tunnel, avoiding a tripwire, until it opened into a chamber with a couple of already-dead draugr. Abruptly, the ground shook and a woman's voice spoke. "I am Lu'ah Al-Skaven. Who are you to disrupt my work? Begone, or I will add you to my army of the dead!"
There was another mage here, and two "living" draugr. With no hope of stealth any more, Yssha Shouted. "Yol ... Toor SHUL!"
All three vanished in a gout of dragonfire, and Nevan turned to stare at her. "Uh ... thuri, I don't remember your Fire Breath being that strong."
Yssha sighed. "Because it was not. For some reason I do not understand, the power of my Thu'um and my magica reserves have both grown considerably since the Thalmor took me. The Thu'um improvement could be because I spent most of six weeks in dragon memories, so perhaps my understanding of the language has deepened enough to explain it. That would not explain the magica reserves, however."
Nevan and Serana exchanged looks, and she shook her head briefly. Yssha's ears flicked a bit in puzzlement, but this was no time for an extended conversation. Still ... "A single word now is as powerful as a full Shout was before. But I do not trust it to remain so forever."
Nevan looked like he wanted to ask more, but wouldn't, at least just yet, and she agreed. Which was just as well, because three vampire necromancers came up from a tunnel descending to the south, their spells and wards ready.
Marcurio and Nevan sent lightning at them - Yshha was amused to find Nevan seemed to be favoring lightning now, as Marcurio did, rather than flames - and Serana targeted them with her usual ice spears.
They continued through the passage the mages had come from, and Yssha frowned as they entered a catacomb full of resting draugr. Sure enough, the voice spoke again. "Rise from your graves to defeat these worms."
And the draugr obeyed. Yssha grinned as she began wielding her mace. She saw the light from Dawnbreaker off to her left, and wondered if it would do its exploding trick now, when that would be really useful, but none of them would count on it. When she got too many opponents in front of her, she Shouted, "Yol", and most went up in flames, but for the most part, she preferred mace-work.
Until Marcurio got thrown past her by a Draugr Overlord using Fus on him. That angered her, and she blasted it with Fire Breath, allowing them to continue once Marcurio made it to his feet and caught his breath.
Searching the room, they found Lu-ah's journal, which made things a lot clearer.
"Twenty-five years I have grieved for my husband, and sought revenge against the Empire for his death. I have researched the magicks to return his spirit to a body and something about the story of Fjori and Holgeir has drawn me here...
"Holgeir would make the perfect vessel to bring my Saeel back to life.
"I have managed to raise the dead here and use them as laborers to clear the way to the main burial hall. Something about the methods used by the ancient Nords has kept them incredibly well preserved. Would that these Stormcloaks had half their sense. We could have used them to push the elves right off the continent and formed a new state to combat the empire.
"And now, when I am so close, a war breaks out. The sleeping bear of Skyrim, who would not come to aid us in Hammerfell, awakens now that the Empire has abandoned them as well. They think they know suffering at the hands of the Empire? They know nothing. I would see both the Empire and these sons of Skyrim into Oblivion myself."
"And recruited necromancers and vampires to help her," Serana said in disgust. "That reviving the dead thing didn't work when I was alive the first time, and I very much doubt it worked in the millennia I was locked away, either. But idiots keep trying."
"It never did," Marcurio said. "With only two exceptions that I know of -other than dragons, of course - dead is dead, and the only undeath that's reversible is a vampire's."
"Well, we need to keep going, of course," Nevan said, bringing them back to the present. "There's a pillar puzzle and another copy of that book we found at the entrance. And it looks like carved clues over there, partly hidden by rocks and weeds."
Yssha chuckled, grabbing the book and re-reading it. "I love the way the Nords leave clues obvious to anyone much brighter than a draugr or skeever. It looks like it is Eagle, Snake, Whale, Snake."
Nevan pushed the pillars to those positions, and a gate to the south opened. They crossed a footbridge, avoiding a pressure plate, and entered a tunnel with more easily-avoided pressure plates. Yssha picked a locked door at the end of the tunnel, to reveal a shallow niche with a locked chest and a lever. She opened the chest first, then activated the lever. Nothing noticeably happened, so possibly it was supposed to deactivate traps they hadn't activated in the first place.
They continued through another tunnel to a large chamber with both active draugr and a number of sarcophagi. Yssha hefted her mace and waded in, while Serana wielded Dawnbreaker and Marcurio and Nevan used lightning bolts. As the sarcophagi burst open, Serana connected with one of the draugr, and Dawnbreaker did its fiery explosion, and what draugr weren't killed fled deeper into the dungeon.
That left the team free to search the room, avoiding a number of traps to get a key and loot a couple of chests, one locked, one open.
The next tunnel was clearly where the escaped draugr had fled to, milling around and disorganized, so Yssha had the others stay back while she used Fire Breath on them. The team continued, encountering a couple more draugr and a single vampire, who yelled, "Traitor!" at Serana before she hit him with an ice spear.
As they passed a pair of thrones, Lu-ah spoke again. "I could not raise him, but I will raise an army to avenge his defilement!"
It wasn't an army, but it was almost as bad, from Yssha's point of view - a pair of Dragon Priest-level draugr. Not being actual Dragon Priests, they didn't teleport, which was a mercy, but they were certainly tough. On the other hand, so was the team, so Yssha left the draugr to them while she went against Lu-ah.
The woman was more than a necromancer; she was also skilled in several Destruction spells, and for a few seconds, Yssha had to protect herself with a ward spell until she could Shout, "Mul ... Qah DIIV!" As the glow of Dragon Aspect appeared around her, she wondered how its Shout-enhancing effects would work - or not work - with her already-more-powerful Shouts.
She didn't want to harm anything useful that Lu-ah might be carrying, so she decided quickly against Fire Breath. Ice Form could be stopped by the ward Lu-Ah would undoubtedly cast, so that left Soul Tear. It wasn't one she particularly liked ... so maybe try one she'd designed herself, to finish up the Fire/Frost/Lightning triad.
As soon as she thought of that, she implemented it. "Qo ... Nos BEL!"
It worked exactly as she'd hoped, lightning coming from her mouth and striking her foe, leaving Lu-ah a smoking corpse. It was unbecoming, she knew, but she couldn't help feeling a bit smug. All the Destruction spells had forms for each of the three energy types, but Shouts hadn't ... or at least she'd never found one. It hadn't seemed right for there not to be, as useful as Marcurio's lightning bolt spells were, and now there was.
Speaking of Marcurio, he and the other two had finished off the two draugr, and now two ghosts faced them, hands spread in a gesture of peace. Yssha joined her team, and bowed to the ghosts. "Fjori and Holgeir?"
They returned her bow, and Holgeir spoke. "Yes, Ysmir. We thank you and yours for freeing us from our slavery. We depart now for Sovngarde, but we leave you Ghostblade, as a token of our thanks."
Yssha smiled. "May you pass over the Whalebone Bridge into the Hall of Valor, to share your tale of love and sacrifice."
The two clasped hands and smiled silently, then floated upward through the rock.
Yssha picked up Ghostblade, which looked remarkably like the Drainheart swords she'd seen in Labyrinthian, but it didn't have the same feel of menace those did. "Would you like it, Nevan?" she asked.
He shook his head. "I like my enchanted dragonbone, thanks. Hang onto it for now; I'm sure you'll find someone it fits, in time."
"Very well. Then help me search this room, and we will depart."
They did so, finding another key that proved to unlock an entrance to the first part of the dungeon.
When they emerged onto the surface, Yssha felt a sense of ... freedom she hadn't noticed emerging from dungeons before. She called Odahviing, and when he landed, she grinned at him. "Unless it is simply one I have not yet encountered, I believe I may have created a new Shout."
Odahviing cocked his head. "And what is it?"
Without using the intent for a Shout, she said, "Qo nos bel."
"And it worked? Underground?" Odahviing was surprised. "We could never ... well. Get underground except by accident, of course. So yes, thuri, it is new. Our congratulations."
Yssha's eartips warmed as she blushed with pleasure. "Thank you!"
"Lightning Breath. And it never occurred to us." He gape-grinned at her. "How much else new will you bring us, kaaz-thuru?"
"How can I know? But I am hungry, so will you take us home?"
"Certainly. Mount, and we go."