@Acadian: The worst part about writing like this is that I lose practice writing Lady Cora's voice! I have to pay attention and make sure her stutter surfaces at the appropriate times!
@ghastley: Yes, I suppose you're right, ghastley. It's better to stick with what has worked in the past. If it ain't broke, why fix it?
@Mustard: Interesting that you should bring up communist vampires. We'll see just how right you are! As for what Lady Cora will do when her back is up against a wall, you're about to find out!
@Sage Rose: You are right, Lady Cora is the master of passive-aggressive disobedience. In that sense she is much like dear Cinnie.
@Grits: More to this night indeed!
It's been a while, and this story yet continues to resurface. Lady Cora has been growing ever more impatient while I've been off exploring Skyrim first with Alise then with Hallkatla. Finally she sat me down and made me finish this next installment. Hopefully we can continue with more soon . . .
When we last visited Lady Cora, she had just survived an arduous sea journey and made her way to Fort Crowhaven. Now recall this is not the abandoned Fort known from the Grey Prince's story, and Lord Lovidicus does not yet exist. In any case, we have a mysterious nighttime danger that is assaulting the garrison of the fort, and both Lord Vant and Lieutenant Alorius have advised our Lady Cora that she is to stay safe within the depths of the fort.
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Chapter Forty-fiveThis time it was not the old nightmares that disturbed me, but rather an oppressive feeling of impending danger. I started awake, and strained to make out the whispers from the other side of the privacy screens. I glanced over at Morna, but she slumbered on obliviously.
The silence drove me out from beneath the warm furs into the cool dampness of the subterranean room. I moved past the screens to the main part of the chamber. The dim glow of the banked fire revealed little other than the absence of the two men. My eyes drifted over the empty space toward the doorway.
What time is it? While I felt relatively safe within Nirn's embrace, I hated losing track of time underground.
My cloak hung beside the fire, where Morna had left it to air out. I wrapped it around my shoulders, then moved to the portal that led into the rest of the structure. Silence persisted in the corridor beyond as I retraced our earlier steps. Darkness separated pools of torchlight and barely hid the emptiness of the fort. I paused in the common hall and gazed upward toward the shadowed ceiling. My ears strained for any sound, and heard nothing.
Have everyone been taken tonight? Or are they all out there, on the walls? The old stones held their breaths as my toes sought the strength of Nirn. The familiar comfort strengthened my knees as I gathered my skirts and moved up the stairs toward the entry passage.
As I neared the wooden door that kept out the unknown danger, my flesh began to tingle. I stopped, puzzled by the sensation.
Magic? But it is not like any I’ve felt before. It felt not like normal magicka, not even like that surge of healing light General Talos had poured into my wounded self.
No, it feels - rotten? Stale? A sudden image of the abattoir at Cardonaccum surfaced in my memory, its walls stained with dried blood after the fall slaughter.
The horses! I pushed the door open onto a scene of confusion. Darkness swirled with red and gold torchlight throughout the keep’s sheltered courtyard, and flickered along its galleries. Shadowed forms shouted at each other, weapons swung at vague shapes that faded from sight.
An equine scream drew my attention to the picket lines. Horses scrambled against their restraints, swinging their hindquarters toward some unseen enemy. Sparks flew from shod feet as heads tossed restlessly. Their fear drew me toward them, and I darted in their direction.
“Lady!” A shout distracted me just as I reached the nearest steed. My hand on its lathered shoulder, I glanced over my shoulder as the guard ran toward me, his shield stretched toward me. The tingling sensation grew stronger, until I could almost smell old iron.
The horse screamed and reared as I watched an impossibly tall shadow rise beyond the guard. The man’s attention on me, he grasped for my shoulder just as the other pounced. Before I could shout a warning, the guard crumpled beneath the attack, the black crow of his shield clattering at my feet. Blood splattered across the hem of my robe, and I heard a slurping sound.
Then the angular shape shifted, and I stared in horror at the gaunt visage, pale in the flickering torchlight, black fluid dripping from long fangs. Then I understood the source of the tingling.
Vampire! As its pale red gaze met mine, I stepped back against the quivering horse behind me.
“CORA!” Lieutenant Alorius’s voice shattered the air, but I could not take my eyes from the hissing creature before me. As it rose to its fullest height, taller than any scarecrow, awkward-limbed and yet oddly graceful in its movements, our gazes remained locked. The vampire licked its fangs as long fingers reached toward me. Behind it, another unnatural form darted toward the fallen guardsman. A groan told me the man still lived. Anger surged in my throat, the anger I had inherited from my father.
Goddess, I whispered voicelessly. Cold, comforting darkness surged into my body, through my arms into my hands as I lifted them to the vampire. The creature hesitated, and its eyes flashed wide when I caught its fingers. “Foulness,” I breathed, “begone into the Void where you belong.”
The vampire’s shriek, almost too high-pitched to hear, crackled across the courtyard. The horse behind me tore the line from its moorings and led a scrambling retreat as smoke wreathed the unholy one. It attempted vainly to free itself from my grasp, but Nirn gave me a strength that surpassed the Divines.
The cold, dark energy turned red hot as it enveloped the vampire in furious heat and absorbed its very form. As the last of its flesh dissolved from my hands, that power surged toward the one that crouched over the guardsman. Weaker than the first, the underling disappeared with a whimper, leaving the man untouched.
That anger did not subside as I turned my gaze away from the injured man and saw more of the ephemeral bloodsuckers. My hands rose toward the sky, and my left foot stamped the stones of the courtyard hard enough to shatter my bones. Yet I did not shatter, though the pavement cracked beneath my feet. Orange heat surged away in a widening circle that swept all of the unholy creatures into nonexistence. My anger, fueled by Nirn’s power, washed over the entire fort. Torches winked out amid shouts of bemused wonder.
Above me, stars whirled in a clearing night sky as my fury winked out. Suddenly weak, I dropped to my knees beside the fallen guardsman. I barely touched his face before Titus caught my shoulders. Once again I felt the cold darkness, and realized that the metallic tingling that had disturbed me was now undetectable.
“Lady!” Lieutenant Alorius’s exclamation followed me into darkness.
Child, you now know your power, my mother’s voice reached me from the depths of emptiness.
You are the conduit through which the Goddess restores balance. As long as your feet remain connected to Nirn, her very core will protect you. And her power is great. Very, very great. Use it sparingly. And never use it for selfish purposes.“Lady?” Titus’s anxious tone greeted my return to myself. My gaze moved past his worried visage to the stars beyond his head. “Lady Cora, can you hear me?”
“Y- yes,” I managed to whisper. My fingers touched his on my shoulder reassuringly before I struggled to sit up. His arm across my back supported me as I glanced toward the guardsman. Momentary alarm surged through me at the absence of his still form. “Did he —?”
“He lives,” Titus assured me. “They brought him inside to heal him.”
“Have the priest b- bless him,” I murmured, trying to swallow moisture back into my throat.
“Bless him?” Lieutenant Alorius repeated. “Do you know something of this attack?”
I cast my gaze around. The horses stood huddled several feet away, the picket lines still trailing after them. Several of them watched me warily, but they seemed calm. I saw no awkwardly-limbed vaporous shapes stalking the guardsmen as they bustled around in search of any remaining enemies.
“You d- don’t know what it was?” I blinked in confusion Titus shook his head somberly.
“No, Lord Cardonaccum,” Vant’s dark tone reached us as he knelt beside the Colovian captain. “Tonight was the worst one yet, and it was clear we were being attacked, but none of us saw what our enemies were.”
I swallowed again. “Vampires,” I told the men. “It was v- vampires. A very ancient and powerful clan, I would guess. I’ve never s- seen them, only heard of them.”
Vant’s breath drew in sharply between clenched teeth. “Vampires!” he exclaimed softly. “You saw them?”
Silently I nodded.
Could I have been the only one to see them? No, the horses saw them too. But apparently these Colovians never did.“That makes sense,” another voice joined us, this time that of a careworn woman with the air of a veteran soldier. I noted a flicker of magicka in her fingers as she leaned down over Vant’s shoulder. “Vampires make themselves difficult to recognize through illusion. Though how you managed to see them —?”
“They were h- hard to see,” I admitted. “More vapor than flesh. But I c- could see their faces, their eyes,” I shuddered again at the memory of the ancient undead.
“You are immune to illusion spells, it seems,” the woman nodded to herself. Golden-white light flickered from her fingers, and I flinched away involuntarily. “Healing magicka, too?”
“Magicka makes Lady Cora ill,” Lieutenant Alorius met my gaze. “Feel well enough to stand up?”
I took a deep breath, and nodded silently. Titus shifted his hands to grasp mine, and drew me to my feet easily. Lord Vant and the woman stepped back as I wavered slightly. Grateful for the Lieutenant’s steadying support, I turned to face the woman. “You are a mage?”
“Not really,” the woman answered. “I am Deryth,” she inclined her head to me. “I am both soldier and healer.” Her brown gaze sharpened on me. “You said something about blessing Ifor?”
The guardsman who tried to protect me. “Hemophilia,” I searched my memory for Reach lore. “It’s the vampire d- disease. The infection takes hold if the victim is not b- blessed within three days.”
“Right,” Deryth nodded curtly. “Unfortunately, our priestess of Dibella was among the first taken. We will have to take Ifor, and any other injured, down to the Chapel in Anvil.”
“Then we will get them ready to go at first light,” Lord Vant spoke decisively. He turned to me. “What ever you did, Lord Cardonaccum, we are grateful. Now that we know that our attackers are vampires, we will be prepared for them!”
Are there any left? I wondered to myself.
