The prize Torina and Serana had come to the Forgotten Vale for in the first place sat in Gelebor's outstretched hand.
"Auriel's bow."
Torina looked away from the weapon to her companion, a smirk twitching on her lips. "You don't sound that impressed, Serana."
"I thought it would be shinier is all," she replied with a shrug.
Gelebor watched the exchange without much emotion. Since their spat in the alchemy alcove he and Torina had walked on eggshells around each other.
Making the first move, Torina reached out to grab the bow and felt the thrill of holding the artifact. Lately she'd favored her crossbow with deadly modified bolts from Sorine. Returning to such a bow would take practice but she relished the idea of returning to the roots of her archery skill. The muscles in her arms already started adjusting to the lighter weight.
"Do you have any elven arrows with you?" Gelebor asked.
"I've several, why?" Torina paused her inspection of the weapon long enough to meet Gelebor's gaze briefly. His white hair shone brilliantly in the morning sun.
"There is a special property that can be added to them," Gelebor said. "It's best done on elven arrows since they're forged of the same material as the bow."
Torina listened intently to the mer's explanation. His words belied some deeper meaning she couldn't catch yet. Serana fidgeted nervously next to her and piped up.
"Does this have something to do with the prophecy my father's been living and killing for?"
Gelebor nodded curtly. "Yes, I fear that it does. Auriel's bow carries a special enchantment I understand is unique to the weapon.. It will work the same as any other bow, the mechanics are the same, but there is a power within it tied directly to the sun. Using blessed arrows from the bow towards the sun will have a devastating effect, especially on the undead."
At his prompting, Torina withdrew twenty of her elven arrows and laid them in his hands. Gold light of a restoration spell encased the arrows as Gelebor whispered words towards the sky. He looked slightly drained after the effort. Returning the arrows to Torina, she placed them in her quiver carefully, leaving one out to inspect it.
Since the battle fought on this balcony the body of Vyrthur was moved. Torina didn't know the customs of snow elves for their dead compared to the rest of Skyrim, but she was not surprised to see that Gelebor had removed him from the citadel's overlook.
Torina looked up, a hand over her eyes, towards the sun to see where it set in the sky. The sunhallowed arrow notched in the bow felt warm under her calloused fingertip. Gelebor understood what she wanted to try and started walking down to the lower section of the balcony.
"Serana, please join me in the cover of the chantry."
The vampire obeyed as Torina raised the bow towards her target. The sun, the tear that connected Mundus to Aetherius, felt impossibly far away for what she intended though she was too curious to wait to test what the bow could do.
Beneath her hands the bow hummed in a high frequency that increased the closer she got to the sun. As if the bow were guiding her where the correct mark would be, once the vibrations moved so fast they started to numb her fingers, she released a breath and loosed one of the blessed arrows. She squinted at the sun as her shot flew away and had to throw her hand up to shield her eyes a moment later.
Large bursts of sunfire fell on the landscape around her, a short and powerful shower of magic that made the hairs on her arms stand on end. Immediately she attached the bow to her back and lifted her hands to dual-cast stoneflesh around herself when one of the bursts landed too closely to her. Torina recognized the color and feel of the magic as from the restoration school - deadly for vampires - but still dangerous to mortals in its potent state. Good thing Gelebor called Serana inside of the chantry. Torina would be sure to warn her companion somehow before using any of these special arrows in combat in a way that the enemy would not benefit from the same warning..
As soon as she started to think of the ways she could help the Dawnguard with this bow, her mind fell to the idea of why Harkon would want it so badly.
"It's magnificent," Torina said, walking towards Gelebor and Serana. "But why would Harkon want a weapon in his possession except to keep vampire hunters from using its power against him?"
Gelebor sighed and crossed his arms. He'd donned his full armor set that day so his movements were slightly restricted. "My brother's 'prophecy' likely holds true to how the bow's power can be corrupted. I fear if this were to get into the hands of such an ancient and powerful creature that his aspirations would become reality."
Serana's face was like stone. "So you're saying that with my blood, the bow would be cursed?"
"Tampering with an aedric or daedric artifact is nearly impossible," Gelebor said. Torina tried not to look guilty as the weight of the Black Star filled her pocket. "It's more likely that using your blood on an elven arrow would have the opposite effect as using one of the sunhallowed arrows."
"I'd rather not test that," Torina said frankly.
"Neither would I," Serana said. A small shudder went through her body at the idea.
Gelebor looked between the two women with an openly relieved expression. "I'm pleased to hear that. Now, my ladies, we should start our journey to get you both out of this valley and on your way back to your comrades. The chantry should let us return to my former respite in Darkfall and from there I can assist you in leaving the cave safely."
Dudes! ES6! I am excite. Let me know your theories on what it will be! To answer a couple of not-signed-in questions from reviews that I cannot message about this privately:
Chapter 2 | AnotherGuest | Did Torina come to Skyrim immediately after the Red Year or more recently? This will be explored and answered completely in chapter 13.
Chapter 3 | AnotherGuest | Regarding how Dunmer have treated many races, yes, I think many races would find what happened to the Falmer appalling. That was exactly my motivation for this fic.
Chapter 4 | AnotherGuest | ...But I have one question: "So many mer lost through simple misunderstandings" - Which misunderstandings are you talking about? Without a sufficient way to communicate, so many falmer have been killed through misunderstandings. Without language they can't connect. They are instantly hostile.