Chapter 5

They had been completely unprepared when the arrows rained down on them, a few guards falling to well placed shots. Titus was the first to react, yelling for a shield formation and the rest of the guards were quick to close ranks around him and his sister. With one arm holding her close, Valerius readied his sword and eyes trying to search for the enemy hidden in the dark foliage of the forest.

Everything went to Oblivion as soon as destruction magic was thrown their way; fire replaced arrows, burning everything around them until they were further surrounded and when the enemy finally showed themselves the clash was brutal. Valerius was grateful as much as he hated to admit it, watching as his soldiers-his friends-fight for their lives as well as his and Lucretia's, cutting down everyone who came within reach and it filled him with a vigor and rage that was only held back by a golden thread. Had Lucretia not been there, he would have reckless forsaken caution and charged ahead to butcher his enemies but she came before his bloodlust. There will be plenty of time for that later.

Somehow an enemy soldier was lucky enough to survive past the defensive line only to be met with a swift beheading by his sword. In just those few moments everything changed, he had let go of her for only a second and he could damn himself to the depths of Oblivion for it. A burst of arcane energy threw them to the ground and when he managed to gather his bearings, his soldiers were no longer holding formation and it became a free for all. It was absolute chaos.

"Luce!" Valerius calls for his sister, eyes searching every bloody body on the ground and becoming more frantic when he doesn't find her, his throat tightens as he yells out feeling himself become taken with desperation, "Lucretia!" He allows his fear to return to rage as he charges further into the fray slicing, hacking, skewering; he kills indiscriminately–even those who threw down their weapons, surrendered and begged for his mercy–none which he left alive. His skin was sticky with blood, it ran down his face and matted his blonde hair, he heaved from more than the physical exertion. Something he could feel just brimming beneath the surface, he couldn't name it but it felt-

"You fool! Why are you simply standing there?!" The scolding came from behind him as a firm hand gripped his bloodied cloak and turned him around, his eyes meeting a terrible face. 'A vampire!' The vampire was quicker than Valerius's blade, he hastily cast a paralysis spell on him successfully halting all form of attack. Valerius growled as he tried to force his body to respond to him.

"Boy. We need to have a talk." The vampire looked absolutely fed up with the whole situation which left Valerius feeling slightly baffled, once he realized he was also dressed like one of his men his bafflement turned to utter confusion. 'Has he been traveling with us the entire time?'

"I am going to release my spell, I would appreciate it if you do not attempt to attack me." No sooner than the spell's effect drop, it was cast again, freezing Valerius in a second attempt of a swing. The vampire huffs and with a sarcastic drawl says, "My…you're as quick-witted as a goblin." He pried Valerius's fingers open causing him to drop his sword then gave a nudge and Valerius's body topples over.

"I will drag you away if I must. Lucretia has already made it to the Pale Pass, soon she will be in Skyrim. What will you do in the meantime, hmm?"

Just the mention of his sister's name had the anger fading back to panic, he stopped his weak attempts at moving as it was clearly futile against the vampire's spell. 'He will run after her of course! But first-'

The effort to speak made sweat bead on his forehead, his voice coming out like a growl, "What do you want?"

"Good. You're coming to your senses. How about we get you up, collect your men and get out of here? We can't head for the Pass now–not yet at least–and I am fairly confident you will want to hear what I have to say. Shall we?" Without waiting for him to reply, he ends the spell again and leans to offer a hand to assist Valerius in standing who spitefully ignores it as he stands on his own then picks up his sword and returns it to his scabbard.

"I need some information before I will blindly follow you anywhere. I won't lead the rest of my men to further death. Who in Oblivion are you?"

"Good. You'll need them anyways. My name is Janus Hassildor, former Count of Skingrad," his tone is filled with pride as he dons a helmet that covers his undead features. "Now no more wasting time, I will answer your questions when we are somewhere more secure. Let's go."

Valerius held his tongue as he glared at the retreating back of the supposed former Count. With the next few minutes, they worked on collecting those still alive; he was disheartened to find Titus slain by numerous arrows. For a few minutes he stood and stared blankly at the body of his friend; the night seemingly stretched on, a blackened pit opening up and swallowing all of Nirn, the humming of something called to him–it spoke in words unknown, barely fluttering at the edge of his mind but he was too tired to focus on it.

He needed to keep moving forward like Janus said, he can't afford to waste time so he sets his shoulders and leads his men away from the still burning carnage following the path of his ancestor, Count Janus Hassildor I.

The sun was blinding as it climbed slowly from the valley between Mount Anthor and the Throat of the World, chasing away the shadows of Whiterun's plains and heating the chilled air. Lucretia sat hidden in the shade of one of the trees along the bank of the small river that passes through the city and merges with the White river. Wrapped in furs, she sat huddled for warmth as she diligently sketched the mushrooms–Mora Tapinella–growing on the stump nearby; she found to best to sketch them as they were in the wild before collecting them, a few times she mixed up her notes on the mushrooms and their properties due to being too rushed. Arcadia had chastised her about the rushing and though it didn't stop Lucretia from wanting to learn as much as possible in the short amount of time that she was giving herself, she understood that mistakes could not be made.

Nearly finished with her sketch, Lucretia hears Ria call out a cheerful greeting to her as she approaches from the city and takes a seat at her side. "Hey there! You're out rather early today."

"Good morning, I could say the same for you." Lucretia chuckled and lowered her journal, keeping it open for the ink to dry. "Danica told me to take the day to rest after I became ill yesterday while healing one of the soldiers. Arcadia is adamant that she can only do so much else in terms of teaching me."

Worry coated Ria's voice, "What do you mean ill? You shouldn't be out here if you're unwell!"

"Well I think it is reasonable to lose your stomach when trying to hold someone else's in," said Lucretia as she briefly passed a hand over her stomach and grimaced. "Otherwise I am in perfect health."

"Oh dear! You had me worried there for a moment. I mean, bad for the soldier–is he okay?–I'm just glad you're okay."

Ria was too kind for her own good sometimes but Lucretia is grateful how quickly they became friends. She's spoken to many people in the city but she hasn't invested any time into getting to know anyone aside from her mentors, Farkas and Ria; the latter two being her frequent and willing magicka-healing subjects.

"I appreciate your concern and he is fine, Danica healed him; although I doubt he will be able to return to active service. His wound was pretty bad, I think it was a bandit attack that got him but I could be wrong. Were you heading out to hunt again?"

"Oh yeah, I was gonna see what I could bring back for dinner at Jorrvaskr. You know, if you join the Companions you could-" Lucretia sighed wearily as she shook her head, this was not their first conversation about this. She hated lying but it's not like she could just tell Ria the truth of who she is and why she can't stay in Whiterun and join the Companions. She's been using the false name-Cassia-for weeks and she is still slow to respond to it; it just wasn't her and a part of her that hates what little she has already accomplished doesn't truly feel like it belongs to her–to Lucretia. She hoped one day she could tell Ria and Farkas and her mentors what her real name is and hope that they understand why she lied.

"We've already talked about this Ria, I am sorry. Truly. But there is no way for me to join. Besides, I am an aspiring healer and alchemist. I am better suited to a temple or healing room or an alchemy lab; the most I know about even holding my own dagger is to stick the other person with the pointy end."

That last bit drew a short, bitter chuckle from Ria before she fell silent and pondered. Lucretia let her sit in silence for a few minutes before bumping shoulders and attempting to reassure her. "I might not join the Companions but we are still friends and whenever you get back from your missions and hunts, you can tell me all about it while I fix you right up! Well assuming you get hurt at all."

Ria's face softened and she smiled, "Yeah, I guess you're right. I would have loved to take some missions with you as my shield-sister but having you as my healer is still pretty good. And you know, whenever I'm heading somewhere I can let you know if I see any interesting plants, would you like that?"

"Absolutely! Farkas gave me a map a couple days ago so now I can start marking where places are and make notes in my journal about them too. You could point out where they are and I can make arrangements to go there to collect them." It was an incredibly appealing idea now that she was thinking about it, shame the thought hadn't crossed her mind when she was first given the map.

"You are my friend so if you need someone to take you there and back, I will help!" Ria smiled broadly, just the idea of traveling together greatly improved the rest of her mood; with that said, Ria stood back up and stepped away from where they had been sitting together. "Though I better head out, I expect to be gone for a few hours. I'll see you later!"

Lucretia waved as she farewells her friend, watching her back grow smaller as she traversed down the road and made her way south as if heading towards Riverwood. With a deep breath and a heavy sigh, she finished the last bit of her drawing and packed away her journal after it finished drying. She had other work to do, namely she was repaying Arcadia's tutelage with the plants found in the plains, not that she asked it of her but it made Lucretia feel less like she was taking advantage of Acardia's knowledge and willingness to teach her.

She spent hours gathering the flowers and other nearby flora but wasted so much time by skirting the few giants, the occasional people who gave her a sense of unease, and the mudcrabs near the small rivers and ponds. Before she knew it, evening was setting in and the Sundering Hills to the west cast shadows that reached out across the plains, bearing down on her as the wind bit into her with a frozen vengeance. With a huff that caused her breath to come out as a white cloud, she whispers to herself, "I hate winter," and then proceeds to gather her belongings to return to the city again.

Her hands ache and her body feels too tight as she fights the shivers that seemed to bury itself deep inside her, burning yet numbs every part it touches. The silence also seems unnatural, everything being too quiet as most of the animals hide themselves away to wait for warmer months. Occasionally that silence is broken by the scurrying of a small creature–typically a rabbit–as she came too near on her trek back to the city, a few times the sounds happened over the ridges of the plains making it had to tell what was scurrying about.

Suddenly a high pitched cry of some kind of animal followed quickly by the sharp snap! of what was most definitely bone–her new experience setting broken bones made it easier to recognize–that immediately silenced the cry caused dread to fall into her stomach and a cold sweat to build on her skin. Without trying to be obvious, she raised her basket higher on her arm and chanced a glance behind her, she saw nothing out of the ordinary but the feeling of being prey only became worse. She quickens her pace without running, constantly glancing back to make sure nothing was following right behind her. It felt like hours before she made it back to the city gates when she knew it reality it was only a few minutes, she wiped her clammy hands on a rag she kept in the basket and finished her trek towards the market to hand off the ingredients to Arcadia, she made small talk for a few minutes to be polite–briefly mentioning whatever animal that gave her a scare–before retiring to the Temple, she did steep a cup of a tea to help her sleep. Training with Danica would begin again in the morning and she was already worried sleep would not come easy to her.

Something about the little Imperial stirred his wolf; when he was sent to guide her to that cave with the big tree, her scent bothered him with its strangeness. He talked to his brother about it, the best he could explain was that it smelled something like that of a campfire with hints of iron. Vilkas said it was probably her monthly bleeding which made sense but she's been staying in Whiterun for weeks now it hasn't gone away.

After Ria got hurt during training, he used her as an excuse to visit the temple so she can be healed; thankfully the women got along and they made it a weekly routine to visit. He was sure Danica gave him quizzical looks each time but allowed her apprentice to tend to their injuries with what she had called unfortunate practice; he doesn't understand what that means but he doesn't care much either way.

When he got caught by his brother for following and watching her, Vilkas was mad and told him that he can't stalk her like prey. Not that he thought she was but Vilkas said he would still scare her away if he kept following her around. When he told his brother that he wanted to know more about her, Vilkas assumed he wanted to bed her but that wasn't it. Though she was quite pretty even with how messy her hair was and the fact that she wanted to use magic, he didn't want to bed her. She was interesting to him; she chattered when she was nervous, her heart pitter-pattered whenever she got embarrassed, she would begin to sweat more when he would stare at her–making the fire and iron smell stronger–it made his wolf feel so restless in a way he couldn't described to anyone else in the Circle.

He wasn't sure if it was luck or whatever but in the early evening he set out to hunt the night game in his beast form when he caught the smell of undead. He tracked it back towards Whiterun for a few minutes before catching on to the smell of smoke and iron, it was tracking the little Imperial Healer. He and his wolf both growled in agreement that this was a mistake on its part as they sprung forth as quick as they could to catch the vampire unaware. It gave a loud squeal as their claws dug into its torso but was cut off quickly when their jaw clamped around its throat and with a violent shake it snapped then its body fell into a pile of ashes at their feet, dust coating their tongue in a disgusting aftertaste. 'Weak! Even she could have killed it with a simple fire spell.' They growled in agreement together. They watched the Imperial healer race-not race back to the city with glances behind her as if she knew they were there dogging her steps home.

AN: I meant to get this out sooner but had 2 deaths in the family within the past week so I have been dealing with mental and emotional fatigue. Its on the shorter side again just under 3000 words but jumps between 3 different POVs. I did give it a once over but I apologize for any missed mistakes.

'Luce' is pronounced the same as if it were spelled 'Lucy'.

1st POV is Valerius during the night of 31th of Evening Star, 4E 200 when the story starts in Chapter 1 in Lucretia's POV; then, back to Lucretia; lastly, Farkas. I figured it is a given but in just in case...