Chapter 71: A providential encounter

[26th – 27th of Sun's Height 4E 202]

We had finally made it to and into Dimhollow Crypt, and Tolan had died after recklessly attacking the vampires in the first cavern. The rest of us had been able to rescue Brother Adalvald, contrary to the game, and we had unlocked Serana's hiding place; the female vampire was quite gorgeous, but somehow did not trigger the attraction in me I had almost expected. I was not sure yet if I felt disappointed about that or rather happy that I did not want to get close to a vampire. With her help, it had been ridiculously easy to get out of the crypt again, and once outside we had prepared camp, as it was getting dark and we – excluding the vampiress – needed rest. Soon some meat was warming up over a campfire, and we had a chance to talk about the future plans, specifically those for Serana. I asked the pretty vampire lady:

"So, Serana, you want to get back home, right?"

"Yes, I do. While I am not sure if I want to face my father, I really want to see mother again, at least."

"And you home is far west, close to the northwestern corner of Haafingar, right?"

"My family used to live on an island out there, indeed. I would guess they still do, although I can't be sure, of course; it has been a very long time after all. Talking of my family, I would have expected that some of my father's loyal followers would search for me; weren't there any vampires in the crypt?"

"Oh yes, there were some, and it appeared that they reported to someone called Lokil."

"Lokil! Of course, he would search for me; I have known him, and while he appears to be fully loyal to my father, I suspect he he may have his own agenda and his own goals. I may actually be glad that you found me and not him. Oh, I assume that this implies he's dead now, I mean really dead?"

"I'm afraid so, yes; he was about to kill Brother Adalvald when we reached the inner area; we did not have a choice. Is that a problem?"

"No, not at all. I never liked him, and I'm almost relieved to hear about that. When I was home, I always tried to keep my distance from him. He, and many of his court, eat people without distinction, but I'm not that kind of vampire; I only eat bad people, as I told Inigo already."

That, of course, led to the question who decided who was bad or not, but maybe this was not the time to ask. Serana continued:

"Frankly, I don't think you're one of them, so you're safe from me, though not from most other vampires."

"How does it feel?" Inigo asked. "Being a vampire, I mean, not being eaten."

"It feels pretty great, actually."

"How so?"

"It just does. I can't explain why; perhaps it's just the power flowing from it."

The blue cat's curiosity was satisfied for now, and the vampiress got back to a previous topic:

"Talking about home, I haven't been in the area of my home literally for ages, as it appears, and I might need somebody to guide me there."

A vampiress of her caliber should really be able to get along just by herself just fine, in my opinion at least, unless she had a bad sense for directions. However, as she looked in my direction, I responded:

"Serana, even if I wanted to, I can't go into and through Haafingar hold; the Imperials, who are in charge there, seem to have a bounty on my head. A Khajiit of my size and color doesn't really stand a chance to go unnoticed."

"Imperials?"

"Yes, the ones from the Empire in Cyrodiil."

"There's an empire in Cyrodiil?"

"Indeed, and it has existed for many hundred years. Unfortunately, they have made a deal with the Thalmor a few decades ago, and they suppress people here in Skyrim, and that's why we have a civil war ongoing."

"I also don't know who the Thalmor are, but I'd rather not get involved with any civil war. And what's that about a hold?"

Jordis explained that:

"We're in the province of Skyrim, and Skyrim is divided into nine holds, each one ruled by a Jarl. Haafingar is the northwestern hold, and its main city Solitude is also the capital city of Skyrim."

Adalvald chimed in:

"Now, before we go discussing how to get Serana home, can somebody please explain again why we are helping her instead of killing her right away? She is a vampire, after all!"

Agmaer looked like he was irritated; maybe he felt pulled between his Dawnguard obligations and his admiration for her beauty or so. I tried to explain:

"Brother Adalvald, I am a scholar, and I sometimes have visions. In one of those visions I have seen how Serana is going to have a critical role in helping us to fight against something evil."

"A different evil from Alduin?"

"It appears so, yes, but not much less dangerous. So, in order to help she will first have to find her way home. I can't explain much more than that, but please believe me."

Jordis added, supporting me:

"I can confirm that my Thane's visions seem to be well founded, and I know that we better listen. I also don't like the idea of letting her go, but I guess that we'll have to."

The Vigilant was not really convinced, and he had another objection:

"What about the Elder Scroll she carries? Should we really allow her to keep that? Wouldn't it be better to claim it and store it in a safe place?"

Serana showed her fangs for a moment, and I tried to deescalate:

"Brother Adalvald, please also believe me in that; there's no harm in allowing her to keep the scroll. No vampire will be able to read it anyway. Besides, I doubt that she'd be willing to hand it over, and we really don't want to fight her here and now. You have seen how she handled the gargoyles in there, right?"

The Vigilant clearly wasn't convinced, but needed to concede my point. Also, he was the only one in the group who objected, and thus he just admitted, getting back to the earlier topic of how to get the vampiress home:

"I also don't want to go west; I am eager to get back to our place and help the others."

"And I have an obligation to protect my Khajiit friend" Inigo stated.

The vampiress now looked at Agmaer, and the Nord almost blushed when he responded:

"Lady Serana, if you don't mind my company, I'd like to assist in getting you back to your family."

Serana nodded, and she asked:

"Do you mind if we do some traveling during the night?"

"No, not at all, sure."

Agmaer seemed quite eager to accommodate her, although he had admitted to being tired earlier, and I wondered what his motivation was. However, if he really wanted to go with her, why not. I had one question, though:

"Agmaer, once you brought Serana home, you will have to travel from the extreme end of Skyrim back to the Dawnguard headquarters, and you will be alone; are you aware of that?"

"Yes, I am, B'lushona. I think that I need to do that to prove myself. I have spent most of my life on a farm, and I need to find out how well I can cope on my own for some time, too. This may be the perfect opportunity."

"All right then. If you want, stop by in Whiterun on your way back, and let me know what happened. If I am not there, you can leave a message with one of my housecarls."

"Sure, I can do that."

The Nord turned towards the vampire:

"Is it good enough to leave in the second half of the night? I think that I need a few hours of sleep at least."

They agreed on that, and we prepared our camp for the night. My saber cats were around to watch over us, and Serana did not sleep much at all, so that the Nords, Inigo and I could all sleep. Hanni and Nanni did not seem to actually like the vampiress, but they recognized me tolerating her and thus wouldn't suddenly attack her at least.

Agmaer and Serana left before sunrise, and as Brother Adalvald, Jordis, Inigo and I were awake now, we decided to leave the place as well.

"So, where are we going now?"

Brother Adalvald had a clear preference, and he stated:

"I don't know about you, but I sure need to get back to the Hall again. Yes, it has been destroyed, but what you've told me about the survivors forces me to get back there as soon as I can."

"I understand. For my side, I have not really decided where to go from here, but we can at least escort you home for now, I guess. However, I have to admit that I do not really know where we are exactly; the crypt's exit location is different from the entrance."

"Don't worry" Brother Adalvald claimed; "I can find the way; I have been here before."

"All right; please lead the way."

The exit from Dimhollow Crypt was indeed in a different location than the entrance, and I was not really sure which path to follow; after all, there was no pop-up map with magically marked location available, and there was no GPS either. However, Adalvald indeed seemed to know the area well and led us east. After a couple of hours of navigating narrow mountain trails around many bends we got to the hall, and Adalvald was received with joy; few had expected to see him alive again:

"Brother Adalvald! You are alive!"

"Indeed, I am, thanks to my friends here."

"Do you know, Brother Adalvald, if we're going to be safe here in future?"

"There is no place in Skyrim or maybe even entire Tamriel where we'd ever be totally safe, Vigilant Liliana. However, I believe that the vampires considered this location too close to Dimhollow Crypt, and they probably reacted to my investigations in the crypt. Now that we've cleared it, they should stay away, I hope."

"We've thought about moving to one of our other locations, too, but with the supplies we've got hidden we could easily rebuild the hall, maybe even make it larger and stronger. It will take some time hiring and training more Vigilants, though, and we will miss those who were killed, specifically Keeper Carcette."

A young voice chimed in:

"How was your trip? Did you find many vampires? Did you get injured? Did you…"

"Slow down, Cura, slow down, please" the older Vigilant told the curious teenage girl. "Let us first see off my friends, and then I'll have to report to the Keeper anyway; I will tell everything inside."

Indeed, now as Brother Adalvald had found his comrade Vigilants again, those who had survived the massive vampire attack on their headquarters, it was time for Jordis, Inigo and me to move on. It was too early for lunch, and I was sure that the other Vigilants eagerly waited for Adalvald's report. Thus we shook hands and took our leave, waving back to the others several times while we walked off.

The shortest way back home would be southeast, past the fort again, but for some reason I was tempted to explore the other side of the mountain, almost like an inner voice was pulling me there. We were not in a hurry, and so we followed the trail north and then west, passing the side trail up to the crypt, and coming along a dungeon entrance to our left, up a long set of stairs. When I saw a few bandits lingering there, I noticed that the place looked slightly familiar, but I had no ambition for a fight right now; we kept our distance and moved ahead. Sometime later we met the main road, and based on the map this was the road between Morthal and Dawnstar. Jordis looked at the map together with me and suggested:

"Well, we could make it to Morthal before dusk if we hurry, or at least to that little village called Stonehills. However, both are in Hjaalmarch and under Imperial control, and I guess that we'd better not go there, right?"

"It's a pity, but yes. We will have to either find another mountain pass, like the one through Labyrinthian or head towards Dawnstar."

"In order to get to Labyrinthian we'd also have to travel through Hjaalmarch, and we won't be able to get to Dawnstar today."

"No, I guess not; any thoughts, Inigo?"

"Not specifically, no, but I have heard adventurers telling wild stories about Labyrinthian, and maybe we could just briefly go there and see if the place is as dangerous as some people claim it to be. Anyway, I'm sure that we will find some adventure in every direction."

Yes, he was probably right about that. Just when we had come to the decision to head west towards Labyrinthian, just out of curiosity on my side and Inigo's and despite the risk of entering enemy territory, we saw two people appear in the distance on the road from the west. Two people were unlikely to be a problem, and so we just waited and allowed them to come closer. One of them was taller than the other, and when they approached I saw that both of them were female Redguards. Hanni and Nanni suddenly rushed towards the other party, which confused me, as they had not shown any indication of being a danger to us. However, the saber cats seemed to greet the others instead of attacking them, and indeed, they looked somewhat familiar; eventually I recognized Janina and Rayya. They had not hesitated to approach, specifically when they had noticed Hanni and Nanni, whom they clearly recalled, even as they had grown. Finally we were face to face, and while Rayya and Jordis just nodded towards each other, Janina՚s face almost beamed:

"B'lushona! I had not expected to meet you up here, but I am so happy to see you!"

"Same here, Janina; it has been quite some time."

"That it has. So, tell me, where are you headed?"

"We were just discussing options, and we were about to head west towards Labyrinthian."

"Aren't you some kind of unwanted person with the Legion? There are roadblocks and Imperial patrols around Stonehills!"

"Well, we just thought to have a look, but maybe we better shouldn't."

"B'lushona, I need to ask you a question, although it may seem to be an odd one: Have you been suffering from nightmares recently?"

What? How could she have known that? I had not talked to anybody about my occasional odd and confusing dreams, but I had no reason to not admitting the truth, although I was sure not going to explain details:

"As a matter of fact, yes, I have had nightmares from time to time, not very regularly, but maybe once a week or so. This started after I was with a large group of Companions clearing Shimmermist Cave in First Seed and one of our party died."

"Now, I almost can't believe it; it seems that you are the person I am supposed to meet and ask for help."

"Help for what, Janina?"

"I can tell you about the rest later on, but my current task from Lady Mara sends me to Dawnstar, and somewhere on the road I am supposed to meet a person who suffers from occasional nightmares. Together we are to do something against that, not only for you, but for many other people suffering from bad dreams. Mara did not tell me what exactly to do, though, and I guess that we'll have to find out."

"Wait a second; you are supposed to get to Dawnstar, find out that there are more people suffering from nightmares, and do something about it?"

"Yes, that's it – odd, isn't it?"

"And Lady Mara pointed you in this direction?"

"She sure did; this is part of the quest to find out about my own past."

"All right, I believe that I have an idea about what to do."

"You do, really?"

Of course I did; the information from Janina had suddenly made something click in my brain. Yes, with the nightmares I had had occasionally, I could and should have suspected Dawnstar and the related quest much earlier, but I had not thought about that at all. Now it all came back to me; Dawnstar, nightmares, quest, Mara – that could only mean the familiar and fascinating task to find the priest, whose name I forgot, in the local inn in the city, offer your assistance, go with him to that dungeon up the hill and dive into the past to clear the situation, by using that misma or mistma or something potion after fighting various enemies. I had done that in the game a few times, after all. I did not want to spoil everything, though, and I also could not be sure if that quest would be the same here as in the game. So I just replied:

"Indeed; I have heard that a significant number of the citizens in Dawnstar do suffer from almost regular nightmares, and rumors say that a priest is looking for a solution; maybe we can find this priest and offer our assistance?"

That was actually true, as I had heard about the nightmares from Tikrid; of course, I had additional information and details from playing the game, but at least the basics seemed to be similar. Janina smiled at me and replied:

"And your plan to go to Labyrinthian?"

"That was not something really specific, and I was just curious."

Looking around towards Inigo and Jordis I asked:

"So, from my side, change of plans; let's go to Dawnstar and help Janina; are there any objections?"

There weren't any, and Janina smiled even more:

"You know, this is exactly what Lady Mara predicted – the person I was going to meet on the road would suffer from nightmares and also have an idea what to do in Dawnstar – amazing!"

"So, as we are agreed about our goal, let's head there. But, as we are in mid afternoon already, we won't make it there today."

"No, we won't, we will have to make camp for one night. But, say, aren't you surprised at all to see Rayya traveling with me?"

"No, I am not, as Fiona came back to Whiterun some time ago and told us about the housecarl switch and more."

"Ah, I see."

We had started to follow the road north now, and while Jordis and Rayya exchanged a few words, Janina was curious about what I had done in the last months. I gave her a summary on some of my work and my adventures, specifically also about my house construction project, and she sighed:

"You know, this is something I have missed since I had to flee from my previous home – I am always on the road and don't have a place to call home any longer."

"I can understand that, but what have you been doing all of the time?"

"I can't tell you everything, but I have been following the path Lady Mara and Lady Dibella outlined for me. They both claim that my past and also my destiny will be revealed to me once I have done everything they ask me to do, and I seem to be getting closer. But let me start from the beginning; Fiona probably mentioned what we did in Riften, right?"

"Yes, she did, and she said that you managed to do a favor or two for the local Jarl there and made Thane."

"Indeed; this was mostly about Skooma smuggling and not very complicated. Honestly, they should have been able to get to the bottom of that without me, but once this was done and I had had a chance to help a few citizens with this and that, I suddenly found myself being a Thane. Iona is a good person, but I feel much better with Rayya at my side, whereas Fiona claimed that she prefers Iona՚s somewhat softer attitude. It did not take us long to decide to switch housecarls, and it seemed to be the right decision."

"Fiona says the same, and she told me that she's happy with Iona."

At this time we were getting interrupted by three robed people with strange face masks; we had seen some of those before – Cultists of Miraak. One of them challenged us:

"You there! One of you is the one they call Dragonborn, right?"

"No, actually not – she is not with us at this time."

"But you know her and aid her?"

I suspected where this was going but obliged, while preparing for a fight:

"That we do, yes. Why is this your business? Does Miraak have a problem with that?"

"Don't mention the name of our master! You're all aiding the false Dragonborn, and you will die for it. When Lord Miraak appears all shall bear witness. None will stand to oppose him!"

Quickly I conjured Spirit, and when the cultists started to attack us, I had my crossbow ready and killed the first one with a bolt. Janina and Rayya dealt with the second one, and Jordis, assisted by the three saber cats, took the third. The fight was over in seconds, even before Inigo had a chance to do something, and we looked at each other. Janina said:

"We are a good team together, aren't we?"

I smiled and replied:

"That we are, indeed."

"But what is it about those people, and who is Miraak?

"Janina, do you recall that we already met a group of those cultists earlier, close to Valtheim Towers, shortly before we separated last time?"

"Oh yes, we did, right. Didn't you mention that they are from Solstheim?"

"Yes, correct. Miraak is an earlier Dragonborn, and he may still be alive, but caught in the realm of Hermaeus Mora."

"Hermaeus Mora – the Daedric prince of knowledge, sometimes also called the Demon of Knowledge."

"I guess so, yes; you know about him?"

"While my education was mostly focused on fighting skills and such, I got the basics on Tamriel, Aedra and Daedra as well. Mora's realm is called the 'Apocrypha', I believe, and according to what some people claim, there is a lot of knowledge to be found there."

"Yes, I believe so as well; however, that realm is, of course, also very dangerous and not easily accessible as well. One can get there by reading one of the infamous Black Books, found mostly on Solstheim."

"Have you done that yet?"

"Read a Black Book? No, definitely not, and I have no intention to do so. What I have heard about the Apocrypha is not something to make we want to get there."

Indeed; in the game I had gone there because I had to as part of the related quests, but I had not particularly enjoyed Mora's realm. As a real person, I'd probably want to avoid that if I could; this would probably end up on Fiona's task list eventually. After all, she was Dragonborn, and not me.

[Author's Notes: Miraak's cultists are showing up again, but Balu does not really plan to visit Solstheim any time soon.]