Vala had insisted that Manis not overexert himself which, of course, he had chosen to interpret in the most salacious manner possible.
"I will expend as little energy as possible," he said with a smile.
"Gods' blood, you have a one track mind; though I suppose it is more correct to say two tracks, since you spend as much time thinking about beer making as you do thinking about love making."
The auburn haired Breton was about to answer, but took a moment to consider his response.
"If I denied the truth of your words, I would be a liar."
So it was that Vala and Manis exchanged places at the turning of the Midnight hour glass.
"I have left specific instructions with Saadia," Vala said to him as she stood in front of him, her right hand holding the pilum that she had grounded in the short space between them while her left hand, balled into a fist, rested on her hip. The effect was not wasted on Manis, nor the city guards nearby, all of whom recognized the Centurion for what she was: a woman who was used to giving orders, and having those orders obeyed, "She is to give you the potion, and watch you drink it. The two of you may indulge yourselves as you like until the potion takes hold of you and sends you off to the land of dreams. After that... well, you will just have to take her word for what follows."
Almost every eye turned towards Manis as his laughter rang across Whiterun.
"You take great pains to scold me for my prurient interests, but I see that your blood is just as red as mine in that respect."
"Enjoy your evening, my friend, but mark me: You have an obligation to me and the rest of your brothers and sisters to heal. We rely on your strength. I need not remind you of that, but I do so nonetheless."
"If flattery had the power to heal, I would be completed mended," Manis said warmly, "thank you, Vala."
"Away with you then. Someone awaits you in the Bannered Mare," Vala replied just as warmly.
She watched him depart, and she would not have been surprised to learn that a dark skinned, dark haired beauty was waiting for him on the steps outside the front door as he approached the establishment where all three of them had lodgings.
"Was that your injured friend?" said a woman's voice from behind her, "he seems well on the way to full health."
Vala turned to see the daughter of Aric, Thane of Whiterun, her paint splattered clothing replaced with very fine Elven armor.
She wore no weapon past an Elven dagger, but in her right hand, positioned much like Vala's pilum, was an elegant staff, made from heartwood of Chestnut, which was intricately carved with runes and glyphs that were unfamiliar to Vala, and was capped with a figure that resembled a dragon's head.
Vala's armor was covered by a simple dark red cloak that was quite common amongst Legion officers that wished to keep their armor free from the copious amounts of dust or mud (depending on the season) that normally enveloped cohorts of soldiers on the march, though in this case it was the slight nip in the night air that had convinced Vala to don it.
In the short time since she had see the lady last, Vala had forgotten how tall she was. And the torchlight that surrounded them gave her hair an even deeper golden quality.
"He is much improved from even this morning," Vala replied, "thanks in large part to your father's medicinals. He is under strict orders to drink his second dose of potion and go to bed, though how long he waits to drink it I cannot predict. We depart your beautiful city tomorrow."
"It is good of you, then, to stand guard at this late hour, in defense of a city that is not your own," Lucia said before looking closer at the woman in front of her, and the armor she wore underneath her robe, "but I see that this is not the first night's watch you have endured."
"Indeed, it is not, not by a long chalk. It is also not the first time I have stood in protection of a city that is not my home. It is a sacred duty, and one I take seriously, the defense of those who cannot defend themselves, whether they reside in city, or town, or village."
The tall woman's face broke into a beautiful smile while Vala was speaking.
Gods, no wonder she has bewitched that Companion, she is too beautiful by half.
"Both my mother and my father were officers in the Imperial Legion. They died when I was very young. I am sure, were they here now, they would share your sentiment."
"Forgive me, but I thought that your mother and father resided here in Whiterun with you."
"My father adopted me after my parents died, as he adopted all my brothers and sisters. The woman I call Mother is his housecarl. She raised us, as he did, though she objected to the title of Mother at first, and we would simply call her Lydia. She acquiesced eventually, and those of us who grew up here call her Mother now."
"Your father married his housecarl?"
"No, they did not marry. Neither of them felt it was necessary, and it would not make the slightest difference if they had. Their bond of love and dedication is unshakable. It has been forged over many years, and no piece of paper, or words spoken before any priest, would ever match it, let alone exceed it."
"You should be a poet, friend. Your words make my heart swell within my chest."
The beautiful smile broke into beautiful laughter.
"I am no poet, friend. Trust me. But thank you for your kind words," she said just as a familiar face approached.
"He seems to have scrubbed himself clean of paint," Vala said as she watched the man approach.
"That is not Vilkas. That is his brother Farkas," She answered.
This is the man who killed our people in Dustman's Cairn?
"Does Runa ever plan to step foot through the Whiterun city gate again?" he asked Lucia without preamble.
The woman glanced briefly at Vala and rolled her eyes before she replied.
"You act as if she has been away for an age. It has been only seven days."
"Do I recall correctly that Runa is your sister?" Vala asked.
"Yes. She is visiting my sisters Sophie and Collette in Windhelm. This one has been a steady source of daily complaints at her absence."
Farkas looked at Vala for long enough that she began to think that he recognized her.
"Did Proventus ask the Legion for assistance with these nightly attacks?" he asked.
"Not to my knowledge," Lucia answered, "It is the Gods, or one of them at least, and this woman's sense of charity and duty that we have to thank for her help."
"It is the least we could do to thank you for your help in healing my friend," Vala said as she looked around at the assembled force of men and women, which included the woman from the Bannered Mare named Uthgerd, "but it appears that you do not require my assistance."
"Farkas, this is Vala. She accompanied her friend to the Temple so that his wounds might be treated. The two of you must have passed each other as you walked here and he walked back to the Inn."
"I passed a large Breton that I did not recognize on my way here. Was that him?"
"It was," Vala said, "I admit he is somewhat hard to miss, though his tattoos are less noticeable at night, as is the distinctive color of his hair."
"Is it not normal to carry two of those?" Farkas asked as he nodded his head at the pilum that Vala still held in her right hand.
"You are well informed I see," Vala said as she raised the weapon only to hand it to the twin brother of the man she had met earlier, "It is customary to carry two, one longer and one shorter. This is the longer variety. The shorter one ended it's life embedded in the shield of a brigand a few years ago. They are almost impossible to retrieve undamaged afterwards, and I never felt the need to replace it. This longer one, my sword, and my bow are more than enough. But I might visit your armorer before we depart tomorrow and replace my short pilum, for nostalgia if for no other reason."
"It has a heft to it that is surprising," Farkas said as he handed it back.
"The steel shaft runs it's full length, and the wood is Lignum vitae," Vala replied.
The hour glass had just turned as the trio were talking, and it seemed almost to act as a signal as two hooded and cloaked figures turned off a side path onto the main road and approached them from the direction of the main gate.
"You two! Stop!" the sergeant of the guard yelled, his left arm and forefinger pointing straight at them.
"Where did they come from?" Farkas asked Lucia as the pair ignored the guards that were moving quickly towards them. But those same guards were forced to stop and turn back when Vala's own hand and arm raised to point at two similarly cloaked figures who were approaching the main road from the path that led to the residential district.
"Beware!" she shouted loudly just as all four figures dropped their cloaks.
"Vampires!" the sergeant yelled as Vala heard the rasping sound of Farkas drawing his sword from its scabbard. But it was not the only sound she heard in that moment, and the source of the other sounds became apparent as she turned around and looked behind her.
"Death hounds," she announced calmly, but clearly enough that Farkas also turned around to see the four hounds running towards them rapidly.
The first hound to reach them, or at least to get close enough to them for Vala to act, died quickly as the sharp steel head of Vala's pilum entered it's gaping maw and pierced the roof of it's mouth before exiting the back of it's skull. Vala was holding her leaf blade sword in her left hand when her upper body wound around like a spring as all the muscles in her right arm and torso pulled the pilum free of the dead hound's skull. She kept a tight grip of that sword as her upper body uncoiled and her left arm swung a forceful blow at the next hound to reach them, shearing through its lower jaw and a good portion of its neck before she reversed her grip on the Lignum vitae shaft and hurled her pilum straight into the charging hound that his targeted the man next to her. The projectile had no sooner left her hand than she had filled that hand again with her bloody sword.
"Come to me, my pretty," Vala said to the beast with glowing red eyes, "and I will send you to Oblivion to keep your litter mates company."
But it seemed that this beast had learned a lesson while watching three of its kin die, and so it hesitated as Vala held her sword in front of her, her entire body charged for combat, and it was in that instant that a fireball passed between Vala and Farkas and struck the beast, which began to howl as the enchanted fire consumed it. A fleeting thought that she should put it out of its misery passed through Vala's mind, but the fire was so intense that there was no way for her to approach it safely, and in the time it took her to consider the possibility the beast was reduced to ash.
Vala turned back towards the main gate only to see that there was no work left for her to do. One of the vampires that had been approaching them was also a smoldering pile of ash, the other, which had gotten so close that Lucia was forced to resort to her dagger, lay dead at the tall woman's feet. One eye was missing, replaced my a large jagged wound where Lucia had plunged her dagger with a straight thrust into its skull before tearing it back out so that she could use it to slice the night walkers throat deep enough to expose its spine.
Six night walkers, and their four pets, lay dead on the main road of Whiterun. Vala walked slowly up to the hound that had died from the impact of her pilum before pulling the weapon free.
She heard footsteps behind her and looked back briefly to see the hansom twin Companion join her before her eyes returned to her damaged weapon.
"This will need tending if if is to be of any future use."
"Adrianne can straighten that in no time at all," Farkas replied as he looked at the bent spear head, "she may be able to supply you with its absent little brother as well."
"That is a very good idea, friend. Thank you," Vala replied as Lucia joined them.
"I should be angry with the two of you," Farkas said to them, "I stood like an imbecile while the Centurion killed three hounds in the blink of an eye, and when I finally see my chance to participate, the remaining hound goes up in flames before my eyes. I could just as well have stayed in Jorrvaskr."
"I did not realize that you alone killed those three," Lucia said to Vala, "I turned around finally to see only one remaining. But I see clearly now that Farkas' sword is clean, while your cloak, arms and hands are covered with blood, and what appears to be brain matter."
"I am covered with both, I cannot deny it," Vala said as she view her appearance, "and it reeks of sulphur, and other things that remind me of death and decay. I must find a large barrel filled with rain water to rinse both my cloak and my person or I fear I will smell like this until the Divines recall me to their bosom."
"Come lady, I know a place where you may wash the blood off your clothes and also wash the taste from your mouth," Farkas said with a smile as he placed a large hand upon her shoulder.