Serana's expression turned grim, "She could be lying."

Minorne made a bark of amusement despite the pressure on her neck, "I might be. How would you know? It's not like you can ever be sure!"

Serana looked stricken for a moment, before her expression hardened and she looked at me, "Should I?"

I blinked and she sparked a ball of aqua-colored light in her hand, curling her lip to bare her fangs.

My mouth fell open in realization, and my whole body went cold. This would be the second time that Serana would enslave someone while in my presence. I swallowed thickly. She had used it on Helskr, and there was no question that she had done it for a good reason. I couldn't deny that this was a damn good reason too: the lives of seventeen Vigilants depended on our ability to free them from the staff's control.

I paused for a moment, let out a long, shaky breath, and then nodded. It wasn't a long-term option, but I could live with it for a few days at least; hopefully long enough to undo the spell and then put the elf to the sword. The fact that Serana was making sure I was okay with the plan, put major points in her favor.

"Should you what?" Minorne demanded, "Do you think a human can wield a spell that can best an Altmer?"

"Oh my poor, dear High Elf," Serana purred. "You think I'm human?"

Then she knelt, looked the Altmer in the eyes, and grinned. Her dark amber eyes seemed to flare a little brighter, and her slender but distinctive fangs glistened in the light of the torches.

"Degenerate!" The Altmer shrieked, "Abomination! Filthy-"

I moved back, releasing the pressure on the Altmer's neck as she screamed epithets. Serana had a clear shot. The blast of light hit the elven woman right in the face as she struggled to her feet.

Minorne gasped and flailed, fighting against the powerful spell as the vampire stood, staring down at the elf with a cold, closed expression. It only took a minute to fully subdue her.

It rarely, if ever, takes longer. I glanced away, grimacing. I wasn't sure if my morals were sliding away from the light, and into a very dark place. A tiny, frightened voice was starting to suspect that I was. After all... every horrible villain in the world always believes they have the best reasons for what they do. I bet even Harkon has his own justification for what he did to his family.

When I turned back, I saw Serana's expression twist with disgust as the spell allowed her a glimpse into the Altmer's memories. Apparently, Minorne didn't have a whole lot of redeeming qualities to her.

Minorne was hunched over, with her head bowed, for a moment. Then she rose smoothly, her expression enraptured. She cast a healing spell upon her shoulder, but her eyes were all for the vampire who stood before her. "By the Divines! It's as if my eyes have been opened! I am blinded by the light of your majesty. I... I must obey you. What would you have of me, my mistress?"

I managed to not stick my finger in my mouth and pretend to vomit, but it was a near thing. Are all elves this… flowery? Gods, it's like reading that ridiculous scripture all over again. Even Seduction doesn't make thralls talk like that!

"I want to free the Vigilants that were enslaved by the staff. How do we remove it without killing them?" Serana spoke with authority.

"Oh my mistress, it can be done, but it is difficult to break the binding, as I designed it myself." Minorne preened a bit, glancing out of the corner of her eyes to see if Serana would praise her for her brilliance. "The staff itself was nothing more than an ordinary Staff of Calming. It was I who created the ability to control through its limited abilities."

"Very well," Serana's voice was deceptively mild. "Let's talk shop." She glanced at me, her expression saying that this was very definitely going to be a conversation where one participant despised the other. "Lasirah? Maybe you should free Florentius."

She switched her attention back to the elf, "Where's the key?"

Minorne gestured negligently at a stone table at the back of the room. I hurried over to grab it as the two began a discussion in earnest about magic.

Florentius turned out to be an Imperial with skin so dark I could only guess that he had some Redguard in his family history.

His face lit up as he saw me approaching, "I knew it! I knew Arkay would save me. I asked for help, and he sent you! You are a very welcome addition to this dreary place, my friend! I owe both you and Arkay a great deal. I'm sure I'll manage to repay him later, but you... What can I do to thank you?"

I smiled a bit as the key clicked in the lock, "Well, you can start by traveling to Fort Dawnguard in the Rift."

He blinked in mild surprise but nodded agreeably enough as the door swung open, "I suppose I could... but what, pray tell, is there?"

"Isran and the Dawnguard need your help."

Florentius' expression fell before shifting to suspicion and displeasure, "Isran? My help? Is this... some kind of a joke? Did Arkay put you up to this? Isran's done nothing but mock me. He's never given me the respect I deserve."

"Please, we need your help," I cajoled, realizing that I had yet another spate of convincing to do. Isran really needs to work on his people skills, I sighed to myself.

"Look, I've just gotten out of quite a mess here, in case you haven't noticed. While I appreciate your help, I…" Florentius' irritated tone took a sudden shift to surprise. "What's that?"

He tilted his head, listening to a conversation that I couldn't hear. "No, that's not what I... Yes, but…" he listened again, his expression growing resigned. "Are you sure? Really?"

He sighed deeply, and his gaze found mine again, "Fine. Arkay says it's a good idea for me to go. I don't agree, but he's not the sort of fellow you can ignore." He shook his head, "I'll head to Fort Dawnguard, then. Don't worry, Arkay will show me the way."

I watched him leave with fascination. I could see why Sorine and Gunmar had their doubts, and why Isran was suspicious. If I hadn't been in periodic mental contact with my own patrons, the man certainly would have come off as downright loony. It was clear his connection to the god of Life and Death was extremely powerful, to the point of being able to have full-on direct conversations.

Once he was gone, I glanced at Serana and Minorne. They were both still engrossed in a discussion. I caught snippets about 'manipulating energies' and using 'partial soul trapping' to tie one life to another.

Even as I struggled to understand their mage speak, my skin crawled. The idea of stealing someone's soul as a power source for enchantments was not a subject I wanted to dwell on. Using the soul of non-intelligent animals is nerve-wracking enough. At least they were creatures of instinct with very little higher thinking. Falion had explained the practice of using human souls two months ago. It was more than enough to provide fodder for nightmares that still cropped up from time to time.

I turned to poke around the back of the room and was relieved to find a door leading farther back. Through it, I found a small area that the Altmer had commandeered as a bedroom. The room was luxurious for what it was: complete with a bed sporting thick furs and hay as a cushion for the bedframe, as well as small personal effects.

There were no clues to explain Minorne's fixation on this place, though I did find a back door leading out. The Altmer must have come in through that back door, then cast her enchantments from afar to draw the Vigilants to dig inward from the front. But the thing was… there was little else to excavate here. Other than a few veins of minerals, the excavation of this ruin was, more or less, complete.

Maybe it was to be the Altmer's base of operations? Any elf that fixated on enslaving humans could certainly do some damage to the people of Skyrim. This place would be a stronghold with slaves who lived and died from her every whim. If she lost a few? Then she just needed to capture a few villagers and gain control of them at her leisure. Or, Oblivion take it, with all the bandits about, there was an endless supply of victims. We had stumbled upon the start of something ugly, especially with the civil war weakening the land. She could build a veritable army and there would be next to no chance that the Jarl would notice in time.

I made a face; Minorne had to die and we had to be the ones who killed her. As much as I despised being an executioner to someone who wasn't a vampire, I also knew that she was too dangerous.

Slaying vampires was an easy enough decision to make. By the time I came in, they were long devolved and were a clear and present danger to other people. The Jarls would behead them for their crimes anyway, even without the stigma of vampirism making it a death sentence on principle.

Minorne was a slaver; a job that some of the Thalmor found great profit in. That too was a death sentence in the Empire, though some social climbers tried very hard not to acknowledge that our 'friends from the Dominion' did such a despicable thing.

I sighed and returned to the room where Serana and the elf seemed to be finally finishing up their discussion.

Serana approached me, "I've got more good news, bad news, and worse news."

"Just give it to me chronologically," I sighed.

"The good news is that I know how the spell that enslaved these people was constructed, and I know, in theory, how to remove it." She grimaced and rubbed the back of her neck, "The bad news is that I have no experience using it. This isn't a spell where I can just read a few theories and cast fireballs at a tree stump… The only way to practice it is to use it directly on people. Since I've never done it before, I would be bound to make mistakes if I did it alone. Some of these people would likely die before I got the hang of it."

I was silent for a long moment, glaring murderously at the Altmer, who ignored me in favor of gazing with utter adoration at her vampire mistress. No surprise there.

"Under Minorne's tutelage, I can release the Vigilants one by one without getting any of them killed." Serana tucked her hands behind her back and paced nervously. "Then the two of us can work together to free them, which will speed things up immensely. After a day or two to learn to release the spell, we could free two people a day, if we spend all day doing nothing else."

"Give me the worse news," I finally said through my teeth. I could see it lurking in her eyes; the hesitation, the barely restrained fear, and the near despair.

"There are seventeen of them. The best prediction I can give is a week to a week and a half to release them all..." She paused unhappily as I covered my eyes with my hand. "...and that's if Minorne and I leave you and some spare Vigilants to handle all the hunting, food preparation, and alchemy for Magicka potions."

"Furthermore, we'll fall behind the Moth Priest for at least that long. I'm also going to have to keep Minorne enthralled for the entire time. I'll need you to keep me attentive to the need to renew the spell on her every day." I felt myself stiffen, even though I knew that part was coming, it still hit me straight to the gut to hear it said out loud. "I'm so sorry, Lasirah," Serana whispered. "I wish I could give us better options."

I was silent for a long time, then took a deep breath and let it out, "Okay." I said, and if my voice shook with the word, neither of us commented on it. "If that's our only path, then let's walk along it."

"You… you're taking this better than I thought you would," my vampire companion offered meekly.

"The one thing we have in favor is that the Three Hold Storm will have dumped enough snow on the passes to block them completely," I admitted. "If it weren't for all the Imperial soldiers, the cities of Dawnstar and Winterhold would be cut off until spring. As it is, they're going to be hard-pressed to clear the roads enough for anyone to head for Winterhold anytime soon. That should give us at least a week of delays before the scholar can get to the College's library."

I couldn't help but grin a bit, "As a bonus, scholars are known to bury themselves in books. The Moth Priest is going to take a plethora of notes, compare ancient texts to maps, and poke, prod, and ponder all information they get. If that Moth Priest leaves the college only a day after he gets there, then he's like no scholar I've heard of. Even if we arrive after he leaves, we won't have missed him by very much."

Serana nodded her acceptance, then asked softly, "And… and Minorne being enthralled?"

I chewed my lower lip for a moment, then said unhappily, "I don't like the idea. In fact, I really don't like it… but it's not like I can see any other options. And… you've been honorable this whole time; you even asked for my approval before you enthralled Minorne. That's… that's something. Just… just keep to your promise; don't ever enthrall me."

.

The following week and a half seemed to drag by. I hunted and foraged with a small group of charmed Vigilants that Serana managed to convince to help.

A small bit of luck meant that there was no burst of violence when the spell let them go. Instead, they suffered from nasty headaches for a few days afterward. We set up a dark, quiet room where the freed Vigilants could do nothing but lie in the quiet dark and try to sleep off the blinding pain. One muttered about something called a 'migraine,' which I could only guess meant "this headache sucks bear scat.' All I could do to help was keep the light levels low, and bring the Vigilants plenty of water and food.

As they were slowly freed, most of the Vigilants chose to leave in groups of three or four, professing a wish to rebuild the Hall once they learned of its fate. Two Vigilants, the owners of what turned out to be two huskies; Bran and Sceolang; chose to go to the Dawnguard. They felt that their dogs could train to fight vampires and other Daedra, if fitted with armor to protect them. They, at least, acknowledged that they needed training, seeing how easily they had been ensnared.

Serana and Minorne whittled down the group, accepting meals from me or one of the still-charmed Vigilants. Every morning, Serana renewed the Vampire Seduction spell to keep the Altmer compliant. Finally, the last of the Vigilants left.

I had packed up our belongings from our shared bedroom, and was prepared to do the final, necessary deed until my companion stopped me.

"I want to be the one to do it," Serana told me during a moment when we were alone. "I want to be the one who executes her for her crimes."

"You want to… are you sure?" I asked, taken aback.

She nodded, her expression growing dark and distant, "Do you object?"

"No, no. Not at all. I just wasn't expecting you to volunteer. Is there… some special reason?" I added, worried by the look on her face. She had definitely seen something in the Altmer's memories that had crystalized her decision.

"Yes." The answer was short and hard, and I flinched a little at it. Guilt washed over her face and she looked away. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be harsh toward you, but… well, yes there's a reason I want to be the one to do it. And… no, I can't talk about it in detail right now."

My thoughts flicked over the possible things she might have seen, given my knowledge of Dominion atrocities, and I gave her a nod of acceptance. Any number of things, not just slavery, could have flipped the switch in Serana's mind. Given what I guessed about her past, at least one evil act could have been responsible for the dark look in Serana's eyes.

I stood back with our packs and let her lead the high elf into the back room.

I said nothing when she came back, looking well-fed, and wiping her dagger clean on a rag that she discarded on the floor. Wordlessly, we settled our travel packs and walked out of Ruunvald to go find us a Moth Priest.