I hit the ground hard enough to drive the air out of my lungs. My focus, my entire being, was on the desperate fight against the aqua-colored chains that were winding themselves around my mind.
"Such an amusing mortal," Harkon sneered, stalking around me like the arrogant predator he was. "Yes, that's right. Struggle. Soon, your mind will tire. It won't take long… Maybe as long as a minute, for the toughest human. And then? I'll take great pleasure in toying with you for the rest of your very short life."
I fought, struggling mentally, to slip free of the icy coils of light that were slowly blocking out my ability to see and hear the world around me. It was useless. I knew how futile it was to fight. No one could resist the chains for long. Dexion had been the longest, and he had been trained for his entire life to have mental fortitude.
I could feel Harkon pressing his will upon me; arrogance, cruelty, satisfaction, and a simple unshakable belief that this was his right as a Vampire Lord. All humans were his playthings, and only he, Lord Harkon, had any say in the matter. Any who disagreed would be silenced and dominated by their rightful master.
"No! No no no no!" The words were a wail; a desperate denial; a plea. A second ball of aqua-colored light exploded over me, this time a direct hit to my chest. Another burst of prickling, one that I almost didn't feel in my fight against Harkon.
And suddenly, his chains slipped, shuddered, and loosened slightly.
"Serana?! What are you…" The vampire lord sounded completely poleaxed.
Another set of aqua-colored chains had come, identical in appearance, but not identical in feel. They coiled around me, almost gently, pushing back Harkon's spell. The two hung in balance, each trying to lay claim to my mind and soul. Then a voice, felt as much as heard.
"Lasirah! Lasirah please… let me in! Let me take you! Please… Hate me with all your heart later… Please… Please..."
A second mind, a second press of willpower, pressed against my dimming thoughts, desperate, pleading. The thoughts were warm, soothing for all that they were groveling. There was no domination here, just a desperately extended hand. Of the two, it was no contest. I mentally seized hold of the soothing chains and swirled them around me. Harkon's grip on me fell away, and darkness consumed me.
.
A scream of agony echoed off the stone walls of the vampire nest.
Eldimar smirked at me, one hand cupping my chin, the other wielding his favored dagger. "Tell me, my dear, what do you think of the lovely song your fiancée sings for us?"
"It's beautiful," my voice was deferential to my Master.
I did not turn to watch Eldimar's minions as they held my fiance still and began cutting the flesh from the back of her left leg. Another scream echoed again and again from the walls of the cave. Instead, my eyes were all for my Dunmer Master. "Does her song please you, my lord?"
The cruel smile that parted his lips made my heart sing with joy. "Indeed it does my… little pet. It pleases me immensely. Allow me to show you the depths of my pleasure."
There was a sharp burst of pain on my cheek as he cut me, then leaned forward to lick the blood that he had drawn from my face. "We shall feast on her flesh tonight, serenaded by the song of her agony. Tomorrow, my dear little toy, it will be your turn."
"Yes, master. Whatever you desire, will be yours," The devotion I had for him was unshakable. He was my master. The only one for me.
His glowing yellow eyes turned away, leaving me feeling alone and grieving for the loss of his attention.
"Dear Lu'sanna," Eldimar called, "do you know what an honor it is to serve me now, as you are? Such fine dining you will provide my associates."
"M-Master…" my fiancée sobbed around the pain. "I am deeply honored to give you all that I am, all that I can, for the pleasure of your esteemed people."
My fiancée was such a good, brave woman for willingly giving herself up for him and his people. My dearest hope would be that I could do the same when my time came.
Another scream, another cut to my cheek that he licked with almost disinterest. "Good girl. Continue."
He smirked into my eyes as the cries went on, his dagger flicking out with lazy efficiency to slice my cheek with every shriek of agony that rang out. My gaze never wavered from his until, suddenly, he left me alone and deprived of his attention once more. He released my chin with a suddenness that made me lose my balance, aided by a tiny shove that sent me backward, away from him as he rose. "Enough! It is time for her final gift!"
"M-master? Have I displeased you?" I pleaded, pain and loss making my voice breathy as I wept with the need for him.
Eldimar didn't acknowledge my words with anything more than a negligent flick of his fingertips to instruct me to stay where I was and wait.
He stood over Lu'sanna, pausing briefly to take in her sobbing gasps as she turned her head to look into our master's eyes a final time. The dagger rose, then fell. Tears blurred my vision as I wept at the loss of his touch and his casual disregard for my need to be with him. To touch him.
My Dunmer Master lifted something dark red, and still pulsing from her chest, and began to devour it with relish. He made his way back to my side, a sated smile on his face. Reaching out, he traced two tear tracks down my face with Lu'sanna's blood.
"Go to your sleep roll now, my dear," he said lazily, his voice slightly slurred from the richness of his feast. "Tomorrow you will gift me your body and heart, and we shall celebrate our complete victory over your village."
Whimpering sadly, I obeyed his command and crawled to the tattered remains of the sleep roll that lay near Eldimar's throne. I wished that he would give me a final caress good night. Perhaps the sweet pain of his fangs as he bit me a final time before bed. But no. He had feasted on the best part of my fiancée. I would have to be satisfied with my gift of my own heart to him... tomorrow.
.
My vision cleared to reveal Serana, my Mistress, kneeling before me with tears streaming from her eyes.
"Mistress?" I half-whispered, "What's wrong? Has someone hurt you?"
The tears fell harder, and she collapsed forward, barely held up by her hands as she knelt next to me on the cold stone floor of Harkon's castle. "Vampire Seduction… it… I saw... "
"You saw the memory of Eldimar," I said the name easily; a Master who was long gone, and with no ties to bind me to him anymore. "He is gone. I'm with you now."
I reached up to cup her face, to offer what comfort I could as she sobbed over me. She shook her head in weak denial as I softly teased her hair and tried to soothe away her tears. "Lasirah…" My name, so mangled from perfect lips soaked with the salt of her tears.
"Well, well, well." Serana stiffened sharply and sucked in a sharp breath at the lazy drawl from behind her. "Finally. My daughter finally claims her birthright and dominates a mortal. Molag Bal as my witness, it took waiting until the eleventh hour, didn't it?"
The tears abruptly stopped flowing, and her dark amber eyes made a switch from grief and loss to cold rage.
Lord Harkon sauntered forward until he could look down on us, smirking. "I must say, if only I had known what it would take to make my daughter take up the mantle as a servant of Molag... Well, I suppose such things happen in their own time. Tell me, my dear daughter, how does it feel to finally subjugate a human being to your will? Isn't it glorious?"
"La-seer-ah," Serana's voice trembled so hard that it broke my name into three syllables. "Rise."
I was on my feet in an instant, lifting myself from the floor with the liquid grace of a lifetime of fighting deadly battles.
"My father has to die," Serana's voice was almost searing the air around us with its hatred.
Dawnbreaker, the beautiful, deadly sword was in my hands without even a conscious thought, and I raised it into a guard position. Of course he had to die. My mistress only had to say the word, and it would be done.
She took a deep breath, looked her father in the eyes, and growled, "Kill him."
Harkon's smug expression changed to surprise, then alarm as my holy sword shot through the air toward his chest.
My vision blurred as the holy sword erupted in a blast of flame. Simultaneously, Harkon vanished into a blaze of black and red energies. A swarm of bats exploded into existence and fled from me, some of them plummeting to the floor in tiny balls of fire. The rest gathered together again: reforming the Vampire Lord, perched atop the Molag fountain a few yards away. A black mark still smoked on his chest, a visible crater where the bats that had once been his flesh had burned and died.
"Witch! Viper! I'll drain the life from you!" He screamed at me in rage, "Your blood will be mine! First, you die, then Serana suffers!"
He gave a sharp gesture and roared, "Rise, my gargoyles!" There were cracking sounds behind me as two gargoyles exploded to life.
"Lasirah! Take out the gargoyles before Harkon!" My beloved mistress shouted, and I dropped into a roll to avoid the swiping claws of the nearest brute.
My mistress was at my side, heedless of the danger to her own life as she helped me fight the abominations. Gods, I loved her! She was so brave and willing to defend me, a lowly human, her ever-loyal thrall.
I dodged another blow from the gargoyle before me, and I saw my opening. Stepping close during the tiny gap in its guard, I shoved my sword through the beast's throat and up into its brain. There was another burst of flame that singed my gloves as the blade sank into the creature's infected flesh. The light in its eyes didn't even get the chance to dim before its head burst like an overcooked egg from the holy flame.
Spinning, I saw that Serana had managed a similar move with an ice spear. Skeletons from past thralls clattered and began to rise.
"I've got them!" my beloved mistress shouted, halting me from turning on the fragile undead, "Get! My! Father!" An ice spear shot across the distance between Serana and the nearest skeleton, turning it into a shower of dislocated bones.
Enveloped in a cold, deadly calm, I turned back to Lord Harkon.
He had not been idle; the blood fountain served as more than a tribute. I spotted him bringing cupped handfuls of blood to his fanged mouth, and the wound in his chest was filling in rapidly. Well, that wouldn't do!
I switched to my bow, drew back a Sunhallowed arrow, and fired it. My mistress wanted him dead, so dead I would make him. He had threatened her. No one would be allowed to touch her. No one!
The arrow struck Harkon's extended arm. The explosion of light made Harkon scream and the room shake. The fountain burst, sending shrapnel into the vampire lord's face and torso. Of his arm below the elbow; there was nothing. Of Molag Bal's snarling face, only the stump of the fountain's neck bubbled over with blood. A fitting appearance for the Daedric King of Rape.
Serana's father gathered energy with an effort of will, and soon sagged behind a shield of glowing red energy. Second and third-degree burns peppered his chest and abdomen from the holy sunlight that had engulfed his end of the cathedral. Smoking holes riddled his flesh where the exploded fragments of the fountain had struck home.
Painfully, slowly, he leaned forward and shoved his mouth over the stumpy neck of the fountain, determined to heal himself yet again.
"Together!" Serana was suddenly at my side, and we both fired; my Sunhallowed Arrow, Serana's ice spear, crossed the distance together.
The shattering sound of ice punctuated the whoomph of the second explosion of sunlight. The remnants of the statue shattered, spilling blood mixed with pulverized stone all over the floor. With a faint ringing sound, Harkon's magical shield broke and disintegrated, leaving empty space where Harkon had once stood. A faint shimmer of red light undulated in place like a mist.
"You can't hide from us!" Serana snapped, and fired another spear into the mist, which swiftly sidestepped the attack and fled up a set of stairs.
Understanding that this was just another trick, I fired another arrow, which missed the swiftly moving mist as it climbed toward higher ground. The muffled explosion of the arrow as it hit the wall did nothing but make Harkon utter a muffled snarl from within his partial invisibility spell.
I stalked the mist as it fled to put some distance between us, cold, efficient, and patient. Vampires were predators. Well, so was I! If Harkon thought of himself as a lion among sheep, then I was a Daedroth among lions. And Serana, my lady, my mistress, had sent me to gobble this lion up like the sheep he claimed to prey upon!
The misty form dropped away as Harkon reached the top of the stairs. He stepped onto a balcony overlooking the floor of the cathedral, breathing heavily and snarling to himself in pain. He clutched the end of his missing arm, his face twisted in pain and hatred. But he wasn't facing me; he was facing the balcony. He hadn't realized that he had been stalked. He probably thought he couldn't be hunted. Predators never thought of themselves as prey.
"You dare defy your father?! You can't stop the prophecy!" he raged down at my mistress. "I should have killed you, and your mother, long ago! As it stands, I'll make you pay for this, daughter!" He spat the word 'daughter' the way a noble would spit the word 'skeever.'
She was holding his attention. My amazing goddess had made herself a distraction for his ire. I smiled, a savage baring of teeth. Mistress had ordered, and there was no better opportunity than the one she had given me.
The bowstring creaked, then twanged. The thunk of the arrow was lost in the explosion of light that engulfed his back. The blast dazzled my eyes and pelted me with sizzling bits of vampire, but I had more important things to worry about. My mistress for one, and whether I had succeeded in carrying out her orders, for another.
When my vision cleared, I staggered up the stairs to see the results of my efforts.
Harkon was no longer on the balcony, but facedown on the remains of the fountain. His wings were gone, as was most of the flesh on his back. The charred remains of him managed to wheeze, "No... Serana... your own father…" before flames engulfed his body, reducing it to a pile of red ash.
My mistress stood over the pile, clutching her left arm with her right and staring down at the remains with mixed emotions. "I'm sorry… I'm sorry it had to be this way…"
I scrambled down the stairs to join her, "Mistress, are you all right? Do you need blood to heal yourself?" I started to pull my hair back from my neck to give her easy access.
Mistress Serana's eyes widened in what could only be described as panic and she hastily shook her head, "I… No! No, I don't. I'm fine."
Her eyes met mine, and the pain that flared up told me that she wasn't all right at all. All she said was a soft, sad, "Well, now it's done. It's all over with." She took a shaky breath, and I frowned at the note of finality in it.
Before I could ask, the doors to the cathedral burst open and the vampire hunter, Isran charged into the room, weapon drawn.
I spun to face him, Dawnbreaker in my hand and ready to run him through if he so much as looked at my mistress the wrong way.
Serana put her hand on my shoulder, shaking her head.
"Easy Lasirah, it's just me," Isran's normally gruff voice soothed. I gritted my teeth and refused to lower my guard completely. "It's over. He's dead, and the prophecy dies with him." He then turned to Serana and his expression softened. In a voice that was apologetic and unusually sympathetic, he said, "I... I suppose this is difficult for you."
Serana gave him a sad smile, "I think my father died a long time ago. This was just... the end of something else. I did what needed to be done. Nothing more."
Isran's expression altered again, forming an expression that seemed completely alien to his usual sour one; he looked gentle and empathetic, "I think perhaps... I think you did more than that. You have my thanks."
"I need to ask for a favor, Isran," My mistress's voice wavered and nearly broke.
"Name it," the vampire hunter said calmly, "and if it's within my ability…"
"I need a cell for Lasirah."
I nearly dropped my sword in shock and alarm. Isran jerked backward so suddenly that he actually staggered a few steps before catching himself.
"What in Oblivion happ-" Isran started, but my cry of anguish drowned him out.
"Mistress! Have I done something to upset you?!" I pleaded, "Please, tell me what I have done and I will punish myself for it!"
Out of the corner of my eyes, I could see that Isran's eyes were as wide as saucers as he looked at me. I turned away from him, dropped my blade, and clutched at Serana's hands. "Please my lady, if I have done you some harm or caused some offense…"
Serana cupped the side of my face gently, tenderly, and more tears streamed down from her glowing eyes. "It is not you who has done the harm. It is not you who has caused the offense."
She turned her gaze away from my confused one, ignoring the whimper of protest as I lost the connection.
There was a beat of silence and then, Isran's voice was back to its full, usual growl, "Very well. I think we can accommodate your request. After which, I think I need a full debriefing of what went on in this..." he finally took a good look around, his expression twisting somewhere between disgust and horror at the bones, blood and destruction. "...Well, what went on in here."
"You will have it," my mistress promised.