The thrall dungeon was well removed from the rest of the castle's social rooms; through a blood-smeared kitchen filled with kegs of human blood. No one seemed to be near enough to bother me for now.

I paced in the cage like a trapped wolf. My begging, my protests, my pleas for her forgiveness, none of them had prevented my mistress from locking me away. I ignored the increasing weariness in my legs to spin and pace agitatedly in the other direction.

My mistress, my goddess, had left me here, where I could not protect her, and had gone away with those… hunters. Those... murderers! They could be torturing her right now, and I wouldn't know until her life was extinguished!

I spun around and stormed in the other direction.

I could hear other thralls in cages nearby: sobbing, wailing for their slain masters. There were a lot of thralls in here. They were packed, several to a cage, trapped in filthy conditions. I was the only one to have my own cage.

This common thrall cell held little more than my bedroll, a small table, and a single chair. My things, including my warm coat, had joined me. I had been stripped of my weapons but not my sources of warmth, at least.

It also showed signs of being cleared out of… of… I wrinkled my nose. Clearly, death had been left in this filthy place before now, though those damned vampire hunters had... well… okay they'd done a reasonable job of cleaning. The bones of countless corpses and the thick coat of blood and... other decomposed things... had been scoured from my prison floor.

I initially didn't know why I merited better conditions than the others. After a moment I realized that as murderous as the vampire hunters were, they knew it wasn't safe to shuffle a bunch of thralls around. Cleaning their cells without their masters to keep them in line was just downright foolhardy. This cage had already been empty, so my imprisonment was little more than convenience. It was unexpectedly nice of them to clean it though.

The door opened beyond my line of sight and I lifted my head hopefully at the sounds of approaching feet. They were too heavy, too plodding, too... mortal... to belong to my beloved mistress's near soundless steps, but perhaps she had sent word to free me? Had she decided that I had been punished enough for my mistakes?

Disappointment made me turn away with a scowl at the sight of the vampire murderer, Hellskr with a plate of food.

"I'm not hungry," I snapped, "and I don't want food from you."

"Of course you are," Hellskr replied, almost gently, "you spent most of today in battle. Your body burned through your reserves like a raging flame. You need food to keep your sun-loving Redguard butt warm through the night here." His mouth quirked into a grin, then he approached the bars. "Come on, I promise you it's good."

He pushed the tray and a goblet of golden mead through the slot below the bars. "Even Serana said you need to eat. She made it, you know. Said something about berries making deer meat more palatable to you," he shrugged.

I reluctantly took the tray and saw that it was true; the meat had been glazed by the sweet pulp of juniper berries and a baked potato glistened with butter next to it. A slice of apple pie sat on a small plate.

I felt tears prick my eyes. She had remembered. Even before she had finally graced me with her loving chains, she had taken such devoted care of me. Even now that I was being punished for some misdeed, she still cared enough to give me foods she knew I enjoyed.

"My mistress is the kindest, most beautiful, most amazing…" I whispered.

"Daedra be damned, she did enthrall you, didn't she?" Hellskr murmured, ignoring my poisonous glower. "You of all people. Never would have thought she had a pair that clanked."

I frowned, trying to figure out what in Oblivion that statement was supposed to mean, then pushed it aside.

"So," I half growled, digging into my still-steaming meal, "When are you going to execute her? And how much torture will she endure beforehand?"

He raised a pale eyebrow before shrugging, "We're not. Isran said the decision would be left up to you… once enough time had passed. Said you were the only one who could have the honor of that verdict."

"Never." The word was flat and short. I finished my meal and pushed the empty food tray and the accompanying tankard back through the bars to him.

"That may change… in time," Hellskr's voice was mild but laced heavily with meaning.

I frowned, then felt the blood drain from my face. They were going to force us apart! Tomorrow, my mistress's power over me would shatter and fall away, leaving me alone and bereft.

"No..." I whispered in horror. I surged to my feet and grabbed the bars desperately, "No! You can't!"

Hellskr's expression was deeply sympathetic as he picked the tray off the floor and rose back to his feet. "Sorry Lasirah, but I'm afraid that we can. We can, and we will. We've done it before at your own recommendations, and we will continue to do it every chance we get. You're not even the only thrall we're doing this to today; every one of them is going to be freed." He jerked a thumb in the direction of the nearest cell, "As for you, it's not even by our orders this time; these orders come from Serana herself."

The pale-haired Nord turned and left me to back up against the wall and then slide down until I was sitting on my sleep roll. Damned! I thought in mute horror. Damned by my own foolish suggestions. I knew how much love and devotion a thrall had for their master or mistress. Why in the name of Meridia had I been a willing part of such a barbaric practice as to forcibly separate the two?!

Then. Serana? Serana ordered that we part? But why?! What have I done to make my mistress hate me so much that she'd want to abandon me?! I struggled to think back to the battle with Harkon for something, anything, that could have driven her to this. I had done everything she had wanted me to. I had followed her orders flawlessly and ensured her orders were carried out. What could I have possibly done to anger her?

Something faint nagged at the back of my mind, but wouldn't coalesce into coherent words.

I sat, struggling with circular thoughts as Hellskr and Durak staggered in, carrying a large brazier, and began filling it with wood. I struggled with my thoughts as they lit it. Soon the room began to warm until even my body began to relax contentedly in the heat that washed through it.

And then, the aqua-colored popping began. It was sporadic at first, but soon it was a steady flow. Every few minutes, a former thrall screamed in rage and there was the sound of a bone splintering or a skull shattering. The freed thralls were taking out the burst of rage against the only breakable things they had access to; the bones of former thralls.

Members of the Dawnguard came in to check on progress and to lead freed thralls out one by one out of the dungeon. None of them returned. It wasn't long before I was truly alone in the dungeon.

Afternoon slid into evening as sounds of activity echoed through the halls of the castle. Hellskr was the only one to visit during that time, and only to add more wood to the brazier and bring me an evening meal. I fell into a fitful sleep as activity drifted off, and woke the next day to breakfast and the sounds of the Dawnguard stirring. After breakfast, time continued to march on, with myself growing steadily more antsy.

The door to the room opened and I jumped to my feet, straining to see who it was, but no one approached the cage where I was contained. Footsteps crossed the floor, but with my human hearing, and the distance between us, I could only detect one set of footsteps. They were heavy and mortal. The door to another cell beyond my line of sight creaked open, then closed, and whoever had come in, left again. There was nothing else; no other sounds that I could catch at this distance.

I started pacing agitatedly again. Tension was building at the back of my mind, which increased my restlessness. My pacing sped up as I felt a shivering sensation begin. At first, it was barely noticeable, but it began to increase. Finally I could all but see the aqua chains in my mind vibrating violently. Then, with a magical pop, the chains separated at the links and cascaded down into darkness before vanishing.

Rage surged through me, and I launched myself across the cell. "HARKON, YOU SCUM-SUCKING, SKEEVER SCREWING, SON OF A BITCH!"

I seized the chair and launched it across my cell with all the strength I could muster. The sound of the wooden furniture splintering was all but lost under a torrent of verbal abuse that spewed out of me for several minutes straight. I cursed him top to bottom, round-about, and back again without once repeating myself. I even added a few new curses that I had learned in Morthal from the thralls that we had freed there. I finally ran out of steam shortly after I described, in detail, how his manhood was too small for a thimble and finally stopped, panting heavily.

"I'll be damned; that was impressive." I whirled around and found Isran, uncharacteristically grinning like a schoolboy, leaning against the far wall outside of my cell. "I'll have to write some of those down for the future thralls to use. Welcome back, Lasirah."

I took a deep, shaky breath and let it out. "It's damned good to BE back, Isran."

"No urge to go back under?" The grin was still on his face, so I knew the question was protocol, not a serious belief that I did.

"Gods no!"

"Heh heh, all right then." While I tried to process the fact that I had just heard Isran, ISRAN for Divine's sake, laugh, he pulled out a set of keys and unlocked the door to my cell.

"Hey uh, where's Serana? I haven't seen her since I was put in the cell." I accepted my weapons back from him and shimmied a little to get the scabbard for Dawnbreaker situated correctly.

"Ah," Isran's voice softened. "She's in her own cell around the corner. You probably heard Hellskr escorting her in just a little before the Seduction wore off."

"I… wait, you put her in a cell?" I frowned.

"Her idea, actually. I debriefed her and she explained everything. I don't…" the gruff Redguard scowled and rubbed the back of his neck. "Look," his voice dropped to a near whisper. "I don't fully understand what's between you two, and I'm trying really hard not to be a meddling old coot but... well... For some reason, she well and truly cares, and she's been beating herself up about what she had to do to save you from Harkon. Make of that what you will."

I gave him a small smile, "I see. Thank you Isran."

He pressed a key into my palm. "Right," he said in a more normal voice, "We're nearly done cleaning up. I'm going to see about lunch. Join us for that when you're done here. Then you can… do what you like with Harkon. We left his remains alone, as promised."

He strode out of the room without another word, leaving me outside of the cell where Serana lay on her sleep roll.

Her back was to me, face tucked against the wall, huddled in on herself in a position that I could almost call cowering.

I unlocked the door to her cell and left it open behind me. Crossing the short distance between us, I sat down next to her, adjusting Dawnbringer so I didn't wind up awkwardly fighting it with it.

"Hey," I said softly, "are you ready to get out of here?"

"No…" the words were barely a whisper. She bowed her head even further. "I deserve to be here. I'm so sorry… I had to use Vampire Seduction on you. I broke my promise… I'm a monster."

"Bull," I replied without hesitation. "If you hadn't, Harkon would have had me, and then the fight really wouldn't have gone well for you."

"But my promise…" she whispered.

"The promise was made between two people who didn't know, or trust one another. Let's be real here... one of us was as much a threat as the other," I pointed out.

"And the reminder after we freed the Vigilants?"

I heaved a deep sigh, then carefully stretched out behind her on her bed roll. Gently, I slid my arm around her waist and draped my chin over her shoulder. "The Vigilants were charmed by a slaver, and we both know how that little incident ended," I said into her ear. "Don't get me wrong, I am NOT happy that I had to endure being enthralled for the second time in my life, but all my anger is at Harkon, not you." I gave her a little squeeze, "By Stendarr and Meridia both, you saved me! I chose to surrender to your control, and I would do it a thousand times more without hesitation… ah… if I had to. I'd really rather not though. Just saying…" I babbled briefly, and heard a sound between a hiccup and a tiny giggle. I continued, "Besides, your only motivation after the fight was to free me, so I can hardly complain."

Slowly, Serana uncurled before turning to look me in the eyes. I smiled back at her, meeting her glowing amber eyes without flinching.

My girlfriend closed the small distance and clutched at me, heedless of the smears of vampire remains that had been splattered across it. A sob wracked her body and I held her, rubbing her back soothingly as the single sob turned into a flood of pent-up emotions. I held her and just talked, softly murmuring reassurances into her ear.

Dimly, I heard the door open at some point, then quietly close without the person coming into the room. We were being given time.

When Serana had finally exhausted herself and her emotions had slowly devolved into the occasional sniffle, we slowly separated and sat up.

"So... what now?" Serana finally asked.

"Now? Now I'd like to see if someone figured out a bathing situation." I stuck my tongue out in disgust and looked at the front of my armor. Black vampire fluids marked my armor in smears and streaks of sticky, half-scorched goo. "Aaaand I'm pretty sure I want to get my armor clean before things start to smell like something worse than charred death hound."

A half laugh burst out of her. "Worse? Is that even possible?"

"I don't know, and I don't want to find out! We also have food to eat, and a castle to sweep for any signs of thralls or hidden vampires. We have to help the Dawnguard pack up whatever supplies they've brought in for the past day. Gods curse it all, all the former thralls have to be brought to safety at the nearest town. I… think that's Solitude…" I mentally checked my map before spreading my hands. "And I guess yet another step we have to take, now that your father is… gone… is to let Valerica know."

Serana blinked, and seemed to pause for some deep thought.

"You... do want to let her know, right?" I added. "I don't want to shove you in that direction if you really don't want to, but this would be the best time to get to the Soul Cairn, since we're right here."

"Maybe... But I... I don't know. But… What about you?" Serana's voice was hesitant.

"What about me?" I repeated, a little puzzled.

"You know… the things she's done…"

Stendarr, god of Merciful Forbearance. I reminded myself. Even I cannot say what I would or could have done better if I had been in her position, fighting to be free of Harkon's insanity and obsession. She made some really stupid decisions, but since she's a vampire? I remembered how the citizens of Solitude had turned on that disguised vampire and winced. Yeah, I can see how she would have thought that she had nowhere else to turn.

"Ah," I said out loud, chewed my lip for a moment, then sighed. "She's still not my favorite person in the world, and, yeah, she did some really messed up stuff. At the same time, I think you did the best thing for her future; chewing her up one side and down the other will have had more of an effect than anything else. Besides," I took a deep breath and let it out, "I think you deserve a chance to have some happiness. And maybe being able to reconnect with your mother is a good idea... And I mean really connect, and bring her from that dark, bitter place her mind has been trapped in for so many millennia."

Serana hugged me again, but when she pulled back, she was smiling, "Thank you. Come on. Let's eat first."

Activity had resumed by the time we headed out of the thrall dungeon. The blood-splattered kitchen had been given a massive and thorough cleaning. The foodstuffs we had brought along were arranged in a sparse but serviceable selection on the newly cleaned shelves. The stove crackled with the coals of a dying cooking fire, and two plates heaped with food waited for us.

I felt a smile tug at my mouth. Isran had expected us both to come out of the thrall dungeon.