Mutants Misplaced
Chapter 42
Rising at Dawn
Continuing on their way to Morthal through the early morning, the group felt far less frozen now than before, after all the fighting and digging they had become quite warm, but as time would go on, that would change as sweat would freeze and the cold winds still blew. Yet, with the adrenaline in their systems, they found themselves with more energy to spare, especially Mikey, who couldn't stay quiet about how incredible Tyroth's exploding punch was. And as one would guess, Raph had more than enough energy to smack his younger brother on the head.
Eventually, after a long walk, the reached the top of a hill, and saw the town of Morthal beneath them. It wasn't as big as any other town or city they had visited, and just barely larger than the village Ivarstead that they passed by days earlier. Situated by a large river, part of which formed a small lake off to the side, Morthal had a large number of small wooden docks used both for small boats and as connecting paths, especially around the small lake. There was a larger stone bridge that crossed the river, leading to a sawmill and a few smaller houses. With frozen mountains to the east of it, and humid marshes to the west, the entire area had a layer of nearly ominous fog covering it, though at the moment, it was thinner than it usually was, most likely because dawn was still two hours away.
According to Devina, Morthal was a rather uninteresting place, as it lacked any real kinds of shops, blacksmiths, or even shrines for the more faithful. If one were an alchemist or herbalist however, the local fauna and flora would definitively be worth the trip, not to mention the small alchemy shop. Aside from that though, the town had a longhouse for it's Jarl, an inn and a barracks for the guards, the rest of the wooden houses were the homes of the residents, most of which worked in either of the two rivalling mines at opposite ends of town. However, on the far edge of Morthal, the group spotted what appeared to be a burned down house, something had happened there, and not too long ago.
"And there you have it. Morthal, not the most cheerful place I've been to, at least not in terms of cities." said Devina.
"I understand what you mean, it looks far from lively. Anything else we should know?" Leo asked as he looked down on the town.
"The people living here are reclusive and cautious of outsiders, preferring to keep to themselves. They also don't trust magic, so my friend, the wizard Falion, hasn't had it easy since he moved here years ago."
"Can't be worse than Windhelm." said Mona. "How long has it been since you've been here?"
"Two years, more or less. I am in practically the only friendly face Falion has here. The amount of verbal abuse he has to endure, it's no wonder that he's grumpy so often. And you wouldn't believe the things the townspeople say about him, everything from sacrificing maidens to eating children. I can't understand where they come up with something like that."
"Poor man, we know all too well how it is to be judged like that." said Donnie. "I hope that that won't cause any problems, we really need him to help Sephie."
"I think he'll be able to reason, he wishes that more here did, and so do I."
"Let's get going then, now that we're so close, so we can finally put this behind us." said Tyroth.
Following the path down the hill and into the town, the group discovered signs of battle that had been obscured by the fog. Bloodstains, metal shards from weapons and armour, marks of cuts and arrowtips on the buildings, all rather recent. People who were awake that early, seemed on edge as the group walked into the centre of town, giving them highly sceptical looks.
"Excuse me, what happened here?" Leo asked one of the guardsmen. He wore similar armour to that of those in Whiterun and Riften, but with pale green cloth and a spiral motif on their shields.
"We were attacked three days ago, by vampires. Cursed undead menace. Lost a lot of good people."
Hearing that, Sephie tried to make herself smaller and less noticeable, staying close to Tyroth who put his arm around her. If vampires had attacked the town, the inhabitants wouldn't be happy to have two more vampires around, especially not considering what Devina had said about them earlier. However, to the mutants surprise, Devina herself didn't seem to want to keep a low profile, instead she approached the guard.
"Do you know what happened to a man by the name of Falion? Is he unharmed?" she asked.
"The wizard? He fought the vampires alongside us guardsmen, summoning those fire atronachs. That man is okay in my book. Last I saw of him, he was over by the sawmill, on the other side of the river, doing… something."
"Unvald! Who are these… things?" asked another guard that walked over to them.
"Just some travellers from the east, they're here seeking that wizard. And I think they are the Saurians we've heard about, well most of them at least."
"Is that so, huh? Let me have a proper look at them." the rude guard said, walking up close to the team and letting his gaze sweep over them all. Stopping to have an extra long look at Tyroth, he then continued with Sephie, giving her an extra long look as well, and he did the same with Devina. Then he suddenly drew his sword and pointed it at the two girls.
"Vampires!" the guard shouted. "Guards! To me!"
It didn't take long before another five guardsmen had responded to their comrade's shout and arrived with their weapons drawn, surrounding the group. But the none-vampires formed a circle around Sephie and Devina, and drew their own weapons. No matter what, they wouldn't let anyone harm their friends.
"They are all servants of the undead! Kill them all!"
As the guardsmen attacked, the mutants easily parried and deflected their strikes, Mona even disarmed one guard by catching his blade with her fans and wringing the weapon out of his hands. Tyroth did a similar thing, grabbing a sword with his hand before the man could properly attack with it, the dragon then took a strong grip on the metal helmet of the guard. The metal creaked and complained as Tyroth's strong hand slowly squeezed it.
"Stand down!" a female voice bellowed, making everyone stop in their tracks. Standing up on a small ledge, near the longhouse, was an elderly woman with many wrinkles and almost raven black hair, she wore a rough looking blue dress with fur shoulder pads. Looking down on the two groups, they could all feel that she was a woman of authority.
"Jarl Idgrod, we were-" the rude guard started, but was cut off.
"That is enough. I know that you are doing your duty, and for that I commend you, but these people are not to be harmed, they are no threat to us, on the contrary, my visions have told me that they will vanquish an ancient danger."
Looking amongst themselves, the guards sheathed their weapons as ordered and left, grumbling while giving the group annoyed looks. Once they were out of earshot, Jarl Idgrod turned to the team.
"I apologize for the guardsmen, but they have the right to be vary. You may continue with your errands." she said and left, entering the longhouse.
"Okay… that was weird." said Mikey. "What did she say about having visions of us?"
"Jarl Idgrod Ravencrone is a mysterious woman, who claims to be able to predict the future through dreams given to her by the Divines." Devina explained.
"Can she?" Raph asked.
"I'm not sure, though many of her predictions have come true, I'm not entirely convinced that it's the gods giving her them. Regardless, she isn't on the best of terms with everyone, not just because of her listening more to her dreams than her councillors, but also because she is by far the most tolerant to Falion, and as I told you, people here don't trust magic."
"I'm curious of this about us vanquishing an ancient evil. What do you make of it?" said Leo.
"Difficult to say, but since there is no way to tell when she had this vision, it could have been when Tyroth defeated that dragon, he definitively was ancient. But it could also been something else you have fought before you came here, or something you have yet to face." said Devina.
"That's the part that had me the most worried." said Donnie. "But we can't dwell on it, we have to find this Falion."
Following the road through the town, they soon saw both the bridge over the river and the sawmill on the other side. And just as they had been told, there was Falion, kneeling by the edge of the river. He was a dark-skinned middle-aged man, wearing the same kind of dark blue robes as Farengar, court wizard of Whiterun.
"Falion?" Devina said, gaining the wizard's attention. "It's me, Devina."
"Devina? Well, that's a face I haven't seen in a while." Falion said as he rose to his feet and turned around. "And you have some interesting company with you I see, these Saurians one has heard about I assume. To what do I owe the pleasure?"
"We need your help. Years ago, you offered to try and make me human again, and while I declined, there is someone else that needs your aid." Devina said, pointing at Sephie. "She was bitten by a vampire, but wishes to be cured of her ailment."
"I see, that shouldn't be too hard, but there is one thing I require for the ritual."
"And what would that be?" Raph asked.
"In order for the ritual to work, we need a soul of either man, mer or beast, a black soul. Meaning that you have to kill someone."
"What? Why?" asked Sephie.
"As a vampire, your body is dead, but this ritual will reignite your life using that of another soul, and for that, it needs to be trapped within an appropriate soul-gem. Once you have that, we can begin the ritual at dawn, when the sun lights the night."
"A soul-gem? Didn't we find one of those a while back? I remember Tyroth freaking out over it." said Mikey.
"You did, and I still got it." said Devina, reaching into her bag and retrieving the black soul-gem.
"That gem holds the soul of a truly monstrous woman, but not even she deserves that fate." said Tyroth. "If her soul can save Sephie, then maybe she can also get some form of peace."
"Then we have all the required components, and dawn is still an hour away. If you are ready, we shall begin as soon as possible. I just need to return to my home and give my daughter these herbs for her cold, as well as pick up a few things. It won't take long and I'll meet you at the ritual site. If you head further to the west, on the edge of the swamp, you'll find a stone circle roughly ten minutes away, it's a large, flat circular stone with runes carved into it, placed in the middle of several old support columns, you can't miss it."
With that, Falion left the group and walked to the other side of town, where he apparently lived, leaving them all alone by the sawmill.
"Guess we'd better find that stone circle then." said Leo, seeing as they weren't sure where it was and that they had a limited time window for the ritual. But just as Falion had said, the place was easy to find, and with nothing else to do, they waited for him to arrive. As they did, Sephie paced back and forth, feeling very nervous, among other things.
"Are you alright, love?" Tyroth asked.
"I'm not entirely sure. I'm exited that I'll be cured from being a vampire, but I'm also afraid that it won't work. And to make it worse, the thirst is still growing stronger by the minute, as if it feels that I'm close to be cured and want me to fall for the temptation so that I want to stay like this, but I don't want to, and I don't want to loose control again and attack someone. Also, I don't think that suppression spell of yours works any more, it hasn't helped at all this time."
"I was afraid of that. Then I'm afraid that I can't do much other than to be here for you. However, there is one thing that I can do." he said, taking one of Sephie's daggers and holding out his other hand. "If you can't hold out until dawn, you can drink some of my blood to quench the thirst."
Sephie looked at her mate with a shocked expression. Was he offering himself? He knew the dangers of vampirism.
"What are you saying? I've struggled so long to hold this back, and now you want me to just throw that away?!"
"I know, but listen to what I have to say first. From what I've gathered, it isn't the thirst or even the blood you thirst for that is the problem, it's the fact that you might attack someone to sate that thirst. It is hunger, plain and simple, everyone feels it, the only difference is that your food is that of living people. Right now, you are starved to such an extent that had it been normal food, you may not have been alive today. Put anyone without food long enough and even their closest friend or family will look tasty to them, it's a basic instinct wanting to survive.
I'm giving you my blood freely, and it's yours if you want it."
Listening to her lover's words, Sephie thought about what the had said, and it made sense, still, she didn't like it. She was afraid that she would become dangerous to her friends, that she would attack them again, but most of all she was afraid that she would like the taste of blood, that she would become addicted to it.
"I… I understand." she said. "And I really appreciate what you're willing to do, I really do, but I want to make it through this. Plus, I don't want to accidentally make you a vampire too."
"If you're certain, then I'll respect that, just know that the offer remains until you're cured. And don't worry about me, I planned on bleeding myself so you wouldn't risk infecting me, just let you fill a small cup. Either way, I'm proud of you for holding out this long, and I'll always be here for you."
Feeling strengthened by Tyroth's words, Sephie sat down together with her love, snuggling up closely to him. Despite being so close to his neck, and feeling the urge to bite him, she didn't. She held onto her conviction, and fought the thirst with renewed strength and determination.
Roughly half an hour later, Falion arrived and started making the final preparations. After getting the soul-gem from Devina, he placed it in the middle of the rune-inscribed stone and told Sephie to stand in the middle as well.
"It is time. I will bring life to your dead body." he said as he stepped outside the runes, turning to the others. "Whatever happens, no one must interfere, the ritual is delicate enough as it is. Just stay where you are and everything will be fine."
Raising his hands to the sky, he waited for the first rays of dawn to rise above the horizon, and once they did, he spoke with a loud and powerful voice.
"I call upon Oblivion Realms, the home of those who are not our ancestors. Answer my plea! As in death there is new life, in Oblivion there is a beginning for that which has ended. I call forth that power! Accept the soul that we offer! As the sun ends the night, end the darkness of this soul, return life to the creature you see before you!"
As Falion spoke, Tyroth looked worriedly at his mate and was astonished of what he saw. A dark bluish-purple energy emanated from the soul-gem, through Sephie's body and hovered above her for a while, taking the rough shape' of a woman. Then a warm golden light flowed from the figure, pouring over Sephie and giving her the same glow. After that, Sephie collapsed, and the ghostly figure faded away as the glow dissipated. Tyroth really struggled to keep himself from running over to her the instant she fell.
"It is done." Falion said tiredly. "She is now among the living again."
Hearing this, Tyroth couldn't contain himself any longer and hurried over to Sephie. She was already on her way back on her feet when he knelt by her side and gave her a helping hand. Immediately one could see the change as her skin-tone changed from the pale greenish-grey to her normal intense green and her eyes regained their green colour as well.
Directly, Sephie used her tongue to check her fangs, and was overjoyed to know that they were gone.
"They're gone… the fangs are gone! I'm not a vampire any more!" she said filled with joy, hardly able to believe it. Receiving a big hug from Tyroth, she eagerly returned it, shedding a few tears of happiness. Once the couple broke the hug, Sephie ran over to her friends and gave each and everyone of them a big hug. Being a very social person, Sephie loved to hug those she held dear, even Falion was given a hug, which caught him off guard.
"Thank you. Thank you for giving me my life back." she said softly.
As he watched his beloved girlfriend, so full of life again, Tyroth came to think about that no one else had reacted to spectacular display during the ritual. Was he the only one that saw it? He did seem to be far more sensitive to magic than the others, even of this world, but why? Seeing as Sephie was cured, it didn't really matter if he saw the magic at work or not, the important part was that his love was alive and well. Now all they needed was some well earned rest back at the inn before they once again would hit the road in search of a way home.
Yay! Sephie's alive again! It's been a long time coming and it is finally done. Now our heroes can focus completely on finding that talisman and get back home. I'm a bit surprised at how fast this chapter came along, especially since it felt like I didn't have as much time to write as I wanted.
But hey, I'm not complaining. See you next time. :D