It was against the Orc. I haven't played Dragon Age in a long time so Jowan's use of the blood magic was unexpected. Really didn't know it would take so much.
This is one reason why I like reading other's accounts on the use of magic. Seems like everyone takes a slightly different approach to how the spells work and how the casting affects the caster.

There is a lot of blood magic in Dragon Age but almost none of it is available to the player because Jowan could not be recruited into the team. However, some rules are spelled out, the most important being that while a blood magic powered spell is active, the donor cannot be healed. The donor not necessarily being the caster... in fact, for more powerful spells like summoning a demon, so much blood is required that the donor usually dies. Some spells take the blood of several people...

But Jowan isn't evil, so he wouldn't use another person's blood unless it was unavoidable. He is prone to go for spectacular effects though... and being in the arena, he just couldn't resist.

Not all spells require so much blood of course. In fact, most spells only require a little - blood acts simply as a Fortify Magicka stimulant. So when an opponent draws Jowan's blood, Jowan can use it to his advantage to cast a stronger spell of the usual kind. Effective, if not spectacular.

There is blood magic in Skyrim (Equilibrium spell) to convert health into magicka, but in Oblivion you could only get a much weaker version to fortify magicka without replenishing it. And fortify magicka spell costs too much magicka to cast to be useful.

I realised that I had not introduced Jowan properly into this thread. Jowan is from Ferelden (Dragon Age Origins). He messed things up so badly, that there was nothing left for him to do but to board a ship - any ship - and leave Ferelden hoping to arrive Elsewhere.

What follows happened a few months back, soon after Lena met Jowan in Anvil. Jowan tells Lena about his past.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

28 Morning Star, 4E202 - Conversations - Jowan reminiscences

"Turn over and let me treat your back" - Lena was saying to Jowan at the inn after their expedition to the Bramblepoint Cave. "Not wearing armour has its disadvantages. Those minotaures got you pretty bad."

Jowan was covered in deep cuts from minotaures' horns, and although his general health could be restored with healing magic, the bruises had to be treated with aloe vera to avoid infection. Lithnilian noticed Jowan's bruises, as well as Jowan's scars.

"Scars over the veins - you are a Blood Mage, aren't you? Not from Tamriel? Fascinating!" - There was no judgement in Lithnilian's voice, just interest. An Altmer sorcerer not of the first youth, he knew of many things not from Tamriel. "I would be thrilled to hear from you about Blood Magic, we know so little about it here. Perhaps tomorrow, when you are feeling better?"

Jowan was a bit taken aback, but Lithnilian seemed genuinely interested, so why not - one mage to another, they could have a conversation. Lena didn't mind hearing that too.

"Oh, you are a mage as well, of course" - Lithnilian looked at Lena with understanding. "And more. The Sufferthorn blade, the Black Band, the Spelldrinker amulet... Yes, so much more..." He was as discreet as he was observant.

"The potions you gave me will be extremely useful, thanks" - Lena referred to very strong Resist Magic potions that Lithnilian gave her as thanks for retrieving his notes. "My birthsign is the Apprentice."

"Indeed!" - Lithnilian beamed. "I'm glad I guessed right."

...

The next morning after breakfast they sat outside the inn enjoying lovely mild weather and beautiful views over the South bank of the Silverfish River. Lithnilian wanted to know how blood magic worked in practice - if blood was a material representation of life force, then of course it could be converted into magicka to power spells, or may be it could be used as is for some special rituals, not unlike Necromancy spells creating animated undead out of corpses. How much magicka would blood actually yield? Would it not kill the mage in the process? Oh - a mage could use someone else's blood instead of his own, you say? That opens up so many new possibilities, of course! And yes, I see why the Tevinter Magisters got so involved with that... But does that not corrupt one's spirit? Oh yes, Sithis will have claimed them long ago... And so on, and so forth.

For Jowan speaking about Blood Magic freely was not just strange - it was unreal. It turned his life upside down and ended any possibility of freedom back in Ferelden, and even though it carried no such punishment in Cyrodiil, it was a non-topic, something that wasn't spoken of. If Necromancy got banned by the Mages Guild, then surely Blood Magic would have been banned even earlier, had it been better known here.

"Well, I don't think Necromancy should have been banned" - said Lithnilian. "I'm not a member of the Mages Guild, so I don't speak for them, but as a fellow mage, I think it was a short-sighted move by the Arch Mage - look how many mages quit and were forced to devote all their time to Necromancy instead of just dabbing in it now and again. Mannimarco does not tolerate part-time members. Surely, Hannibal Traven must have expected this to happen. He must be going for an all-out war, and it is the mages on both sides that are to fall in it." Which was exactly what happened in Ferelden with the war against Blood Magic. Lena made a mental note to try to stay alive.

...

It was mid-afternoon when the discussion came to a close, and the innkeep declared that she was out of crab sandwiches, grapes, pears and oranges - she wasn't missing a beat in keeping her guests well fed.

"I'd like to take a walk now" - Jowan turned to Lena. "I feel a bit heavy with all the memories. Shall we see what's on the other side of this bridge?"

Nothing like a nice walk to clear your head. Wandering through the woods and enjoying filtered sunshine, Jowan was visibly relaxing, and other memories were coming to the fore.

"I got myself into a right mess back in Ferelden" - he told Lena. "I was just in my early 20s, I should have been graduating, but the First Enchanter kept pushing back the date. I thought he didn't trust me to deal with the demons in the Fade, but now I see that he was trying to protect me from the fate awaiting a Blood Mage, which is death. If it wasn't for my so-called girlfriend at the time, I would have talked to someone, but I never said a word of my worries, not even to my best friend, let alone the First Enchanter."

"Your so-called girlfriend?"

"She was an Initiate with the Chantry - you know, she was going to be a Priestess, and so had taken a vow of celibacy. Except that she came to regret it and apparently thought to herself to find a mage willing to go rogue for her and help her escape from the Chantry while in the process completely ruining his own life. That mage was to be me. Well, she was pretty" - he added defensively. "Very... umm... not like a nun." He smiled. Lena knew what he meant. "I was completely smitten, I admit."

"But she wasn't actually in love with you, was she?"

"No, I found out about her plan later... When I was waiting to be executed, or made tranquil, or something... My best friend saved my skin in the end, I should have trusted her with everything, but how do you talk to a girl about another girl? It was awkward, you know. I made such a mess!"

It was hard to argue with that. Lena just walked silently next to Jowan, letting him tell her what he chose.

"My best friend, she... Well, we've been friends since we met at the Tower as children, aged five or six or so, our respective parents having abandoned us for being mages. That was normal in Ferelden, by the way, there was no other way. You either was taken to the Tower or you became an apostate - a rogue mage, and that wasn't a life either. As we were growing up, we remained best friends. We each had adventures with others - you know, short-lived little things, nothing serious... except may be Elisa's flick with that templar, Cullen... but I think it was far more serious on his side than on hers, and he was older too. May be I was jealous and so didn't tell her about Lily's plan to elope until the very end..."

Lena had a few thoughts on what Elisa would have said to that plan, but she remained silent. Jowan continued his story.

"So when the plan went wrong, Lily immediately backed out of everything calling me a 'Blood Mage' and looking stricken with horror - which didn't help to reduce her sentence for breaking her vows, by the way... At that point I did something stupid - I used blood to boost my magicka to help me escape, and in doing so I proved to everyone that I was in fact a Blood Mage."

Ouch. He must have regretted it the moment he'd done it.

"Of course the templars caught up with me after some time... I found I could not live on the run. I got myself into more mess... Then at some point Elisa walked in - she didn't know I was there, it was a coincidence. It was thanks to her that I wasn't executed then and there..."

"She was a good friend" - Lena ventured.

"Yes... Well... She..." - Jowan was struggling. It was obvious that he wanted to tell this story, and he trusted Lena enough for that, but it seemed that he was confused by his own feelings on this... on what he was about to put into words, for the first time even to himself.

"I had misunderstood her for years. When she came to see me in prison later, she offered a way out for me - I could join the Grey Wardens, the group she joined after Lily's and my escape plan failed. But there was more... She said she had loved me for years, that she'd just been waiting for the right time to say it, and, well, we were still so young then. I felt cornered. If I were to refuse her offer, I'd be executed, but if I were to accept it, how could I not accept her love as well? If she hadn't said anything about her feelings, if she'd only offered to join the Grey Wardens, I would have gone with her - she was my best friend, what a better place for me to be than by her side? But love changed everything..."

The sun was starting to set and the sky in the West was coloured pink. Soon the pink turned red, filling more and more of the sky. The red turned sanguine. And finally the night swallowed all.

"But did you love her too?" - Lena asked after a long pause.

"I don't know, is an honest answer. I was so confused, I still am. I thought I loved Lily, but after her betrayal, I definitely didn't, so did I just stop loving her or had I never loved her? Love is such a volatile thing... How do you manage it?"

"You don't. It manages you."

The stars were abundant, and Secunda showed its pale face in full. Lena and Jowan settled on a hill looking into the sky from high grass.

"So how did you escape execution?" - Lena asked, hoping to move away from love woes.

"Cullen - the templar that Elisa had a flick with - he got me out and helped me onto a ship. He said he did it for Elisa, because I was her friend, but I think he did it for himself, because he wanted Elisa and this good deed would put him closer to her. Whatever his motivation, I'm grateful - I'm alive."

Love was a weird thing, and there was no getting away from it. They sat there, looking at the stars, each thinking of the people in their lives, and what they meant to them. Was there true love among them? The stars weren't giving any answers.

26 First Seed, 4E202 - Hame

"Where to next?" - asked Jowan stretching in the fresh air outside of the Deserted Mine where they had spent the night. It was safe but stuffy.

"That way" - Lena pointed vaguely North. "Into the mountains."

It was a lovely morning, and they walked on the slopes enjoying the view and trying not to slip into the canyon below.

"Wait - are those Ayleid stones on the other side of the canyon?" - Hauk pointed East. "Shall we go see?"

If there was ever an invitation to adventure, this was it.

...

Hame housed necromancers.

"Mages Guild necromancers" - pointed out Hauk seeing a Mages Guild banner in one of the halls. "Well, ex-Mages Guild now, of course. I wish we didn't have to fight them."

But there was no way around it - the necromancers were bitter for having been cast out like that, made to live in ruins... They would not tolerate explorers.

After the first encounter, Lena changed into her black robes, crouched, dipped an arrow in poison...

"Let me go first, hang back a bit" - she told Hauk and Jowan. "It'll be easier that way."

The ruin was spacious and dark, with mist hanging low. Bluish light from the Welkynd stones lit up the mist hiding everything from view, torch light included. Lena cast a night eye spell with life detection.

"Ah-ha! There you are" - she muttered under her breath. Shadowhunt sent out an arrow.

"Aaww!" The arrow found its target. The fight didn't last long.

They went through several halls in this manner, the only thing to watch out for being the traps.

"Now I've seen the Assassin" - Jowan was looking at Lena in admiration. "That must be some poison."

"I am not taking any chances" - she replied. "Traps are already bad enough."

Traps were bad here. Two rising floor traps in sequence: one flat and one with spikes, so if you didn't get squashed to death, the impaling would do the trick. There was a necromancer on the other side whom Lena shot with a poisoned arrow. He ran towards her... and... well... you'd think he'd know better than that, but no.

Getting through the traps unharmed was nearly impossible. Both Hauk and Jowan got caught out, even though they did try to follow Lena and jump over the corners. Jowan passed out and had to be pulled off the platform to avoid getting crushed indefinitely. Hauk's armour took most of the damage, and now looked it.

"Here - lie down on this slab" - Lena told Jowan when he came to, moaning.

"I'm not lying down on a slab!" - he protested. "That's a sarcophagus!"

"Oh come on, she's not going to turn you into a zombie!" - Hauk joined in, and Jowan reluctantly agreed.

His ribs were crushed, his limbs were broken in several places, and he was only keeping himself alive with magic. They spent some time casting bone repair spells and rubbing salves into most of his body. One of the traps was still rising and falling rhythmically next to them, with the weight of the dead necromancer triggering the mechanism.

"You don't want to end up like him" - was all Lena could say. "Have you thought about wearing armour?"

"I have" - Jowan admitted. "But light armour wouldn't save me here, and I am no good with heavy - it slows me down. I have been practicing shield spells instead."

Well, it was something. They continued into the ruin.

...

"Oh - look at this great hall!" - exclaimed Lena stepping into a hall in Hame Silasel and turning to Hauk and Jowan just behind her... and watching a grid rise from the floor cutting her off. "Oh."

This was a great hall indeed, with a fire brightly burning in the centre, which made everything else appear even darker. Lena lit up a torch. The hall seemed to be deserted. There was a table with some food in the corner, a Mages Guild counter with alchemical equipment in the middle, and not much else. The door on the opposite end was locked, requiring a key.

"I hate these magical locks" - thought Lena fiddling with it with Nocturnal's skeleton key. "No, it won't give. I need to find the real key. What a bother."

The key could be anywhere... this was like searching for a needle in a stack of hay in the dark with a donkey munching on it. Sooner or later the donkey would swallow the needle.

"Ok, here's one of those Ayleid buttons" - thought Lena. "As good a start as any." She pushed it and heard a wall panel sliding down and a groan behind it, with the stench following - no, preceding it.

"Ugh, a dread zombie. Better not come close!"

She summoned a clannfear and shot a few fire balls at the zombie - job done. In the depth of the hidden corridor was another Ayleid button. She pressed it and heard another wall panel sliding down on the opposite side of the hall. No groans came from there, just chill.

"A wraith, perhaps?" - Lena thought summoning a clannfear. Clannfears are not brilliant against wraiths, but they are fast and can sense danger in the dark. The clannfear ran across the hall but did not enter the now open second hidden corridor. Was it afraid of the icy cold coming from within?

Perhaps. And anyway, it found something else to play with - a couple of skeletons. Correction: a skeleton champion and his summon.

It took several clannfears to lay to rest the champion. The final clannfear stood there looking at the shattered bones, then edged towards the hidden corridor - the icy cold was still emanating from within. The clannfear ran and hid behind Lena.

"Ok, ok, good dog" - Lena patted it. "I'll call Toothy to deal with the wraith." She summoned a daedroth.

The daedroth could barely fit under the low ceiling of the hidden corridor, but he caught attention of the wraith. A few frost spells and Toothy was banished back to Oblivion. This was a Gloom Wraith without a weapon - a wraith of a powerful mage. Very dangerous.

"Just one of those frost spells would kill me" - thought Lena. "Better not get hit. And Toothy will need help."

She summoned another daedroth, and started shooting fire spells at the wraith using the daedroth as a cover. The battle was long, with Lena jumping out of the way of spells and summoning daedroth after daedroth. Eventually the wraith was defeated. Behind it in the depth of the hidden corridor was another Ayleid button. Lena pressed it. Another wall was sliding down.

"Here we go again" - she thought. "What now? A lich?"

The hidden corridor behind this sliding wall opened onto a chamber. Someone was inside.

"So, they locked themselves in. They are not going to be happy to be disturbed!" She remembered the Benirus Manor and the way Lorgren Benirus had locked himself in the basement while transforming into a lich. She shuddered.

She dipped an arrow in poison and crouched, ready to shoot.

"Wait a minute" - a voice said in her head. "What if the key to the exit is in that room somewhere? Like on top of a chest or whatever they've got inside? You shoot this guy, he'll start shooting back and your clannfear will make a mess of it all - you will never find the key! Better go in quietly first and look around."

Lena put away the bow and cast an invisibility spell. Still crouched, she sneaked past the guy - a necromancer of course - and looked around the room. She spotted a key ready to slip from a book it was on. Now or never.

She grabbed the key, dispelling her cloack, then quickly cast the cloack back on and moved. A powerful shock spell hit where she had just stood. She ran out of the room - still cloacked - and summoned a clannfear. No need to hide any longer, the battle was on.

You cannot silence a mage with a staff but you can still stab them. Lena wondered why he had locked himself in like that, but figured there must have been a reason. She also wondered if he was planning to ever come out - and then how - since there was no obvious way to lower the sliding wall from within. Key or no key, he would not have been able to get to the door to begin with.

"Suicide or murder?" - she wondered. But it mattered not.

...

"Finally!" - Hauk rushed towards her hearing a door being unlocked not far from where they had entered Hame Silasel. "When we got cut off by that grid, we backtracked here and found this locked door. We figured that was the exit. What happened?"

"I'll tell you later" - Lena looked pale and tired. "There was some food and beds near the entrance - I need to lie down. There was a wraith" - she looked at Hauk, and he nodded. He too remembered Benirus Manor.

"Will you take blood this time?" - he asked, checking her eye colour.

"'You might need blood to recover from a bad fight'" - Vicente's voice echoed in Lena's mind. "I'll try not to" - she said turning to Hauk.

...

The way back to the entrance was complicated, they took a wrong turn and found more necromancers. The chamber looked like a zombie laboratory.


"A decomposing body on a slab, tied down and freshly decapitated" - Lena had never seen necromancers at work. "Oh, and here's the head. And a silver warhammer at the ready in case things went wrong, I guess."

"But they didn't expect any trouble from the living" - Hauk observed. "I still think it was wrong to ban Necromancy. These mages were meticulous in their work, and the bodies they used were no recent kills. We've just murdered some decent folk" - he added with regret looking at the dead necromancer.

"Yeah, it's too bad they tried to kill us" - Lena reminded him.

Jowan was looking at all this in silence. He was still struggling to understand why some of the Necromancy practices were classified as Conjuration and thus allowed, while others would get you banned and hunted.

"How is summoning undead or raising a revenant any better than making zombies?" - he asked, not really expecting an answer.

"It isn't" - Hauk replied. "Traven re-classified it, or he'd lose the entire Council of Mages rather than half of it."

They left the room shaking their heads.

Once again they navigated the two rising floor traps, getting caught out, cursing and casting healing spells. By the time they reached the hall near the entrance, the improvised bedroom looked exceedingly welcoming.

I enjoyed your reflections on necromancy. As a healer, Buffy will quietly admit that her craft is not complete without at least an academic knowledge of necromantic principles. A lifebringer must understand the process of death to fully grasp her craft. Not to mention necromantic insights on repairing dead or heavily damaged tissue.

Exactly. Which is why Arkay is the God of both Life and Death. There is not one without the other.

Of course Traven has a personal vendetta with Manimarco. Considering how easily Traven sacrifices the lives of Guild mages who happened to practice a bit of necromancy, I would call him evil.

27 First Seed, 4E202 - Cold dream - Shopping in Cheydinhal

Lena was cold. She was lying on a bed in an Ayleid ruin. All was quiet, save the breathing of Jowan and Hauk sleeping on the bedrolls nearby. Lena was hungry, too.

She got up to get some food. Next to the bed was a crate serving as a table with parts of a skeleton on it. And blood stains. Blood.

Icy chill enveloped Lena - she was now shaking. She remembered the wraith she'd faced the day before - a Gloom Wraith with devastating frost spells. Lena didn't get hit by those spells, but the cold emanating from the wraith was enough to freeze the blood in her veins. Perhaps Lena had underestimated the effects.

She tried to put those visions out of her mind and to warm up by moving around. She sprinted into the next chamber and stretched. A dead necromancer was lying against the wall. Was he still warm?

"I'll just--" she was at his neck before she could finish the thought. No, the necromancer was already cold. That wouldn't do.

"But his flesh must be still rich..." - she caught herself thinking, unsheathing her dagger.

"You will always be mine, little one" - a voice said gently in her head. "Don't fight it now."

"Namira!" - Lena cried. "No!"

She forced herself to sheath the dagger and move away from the corpse.

"You'll see" - the voice replied. "With time."

Lena had to clear her head and to warm up, somehow. She ran down the stairs, past Jowan and Hauk, still sleeping. She was very quiet. It was the hall with the traps. Blood. The slabs were covered in blood from yesterday's attempts to cross them. The room started spinning... already dim lights went dimmer still... blood shone brightly on the first slab - it was warm, it was steaming...

...

Lena woke up on the bed in the first hall. She was warm. She remembered the strange dream she had... cold... hunger... corpse... Namira's voice... steaming blood... She shivered. An arm pulled her closer. Hauk.

"You fainted by the traps - it's a wonder you didn't get crushed. You were ice cold. We got you on the bed and I've been trying to warm you up" - he said in her ear. "Don't do that again."

So... it wasn't a dream.

...

It was a chilly morning with overcast skies as they stood outside Hame.

"Which way now?" - asked Jowan. "Can you even walk?"

"Of course I can walk, stop fussing over me" - Lena snapped without conviction. "We need to find an inn or a town - we are out of food." They ate the last bits of fruit for breakfast.

"We also have expensive loot to sell" - added Hauk pointing at their bulging pack. "And the prongs of that Ayleid statue are tearing holes in the bag."

"Cheydinhal then" - decided Lena pointing North West. "Through the mountains."

...

They reached Cheydinhal in the afternoon, their legs sore from climbing. The two inns by the gate had enough food, mead and wine between them to cover several meals. Lena bought it all. Borba was pleased to see her, and bought all the rings, scrolls and potions that Lena cared to sell. They took the Welkynd and Varla stones to the Mages Guild.

"Oh my goodness - nineteen Welkynd stones and five Varlas!" - Eilonwy was extatic. "Don't you want to keep them for yourself?" - she paused at the Varla stones. "It's much cheaper than recharging with gems or... mmm... here." She shot a glance at Uurwen.

"No, that's fine" - Lena replied. "We've got plenty of gems, too..."

Eilonwy's eyes widened as she saw a bag full of gems.

"In fact, I wanted to sell these smaller ones..."

...

They stopped at the smithy to drop off their armour for repairs.

"You want this fixed?" - Tertia Viducia was holding up Hauk's cuirass that looked like a sieve. "I can do it, but it'll cost you! You might be better off buying a new set."

"No, I don't want a new one - this one's already worn in. It actually fits" - Hauk insisted. "Fix it, please. And... polish it" - he smiled.

"All right, but it won't be ready until tomorrow" - Tertia took the armour into her workshop.

Lena decided not to add her armour to the work, Tertia had enough to do as it was. She stopped by the Fighters Guild. The porter wouldn't let her past the door.

"Hey, I'm a member, you know!" - she had to remind him.

"I have no contracts for you, meat!" - Burz gro-Khash was his charming self. "Go see Azzan in Anvil."

"Shut it, gro-Khash" - Keld of the Isles was equally courteous. "I've got a thick skin, but he's rough" - he turned to Lena. "If you choose to spend your time with me..."

"Ahem" - Hauk came in and now stood behind Lena.

"Ah, well, I'm a Guardian, you know" - Keld continued in a more neutral tone. "Didn't get to this rank by picking fights. I'm cautious."

The porter finally conceded to repair Lena's armour, and soon they could leave.

"Why do you even bother with them?" - asked Jowan, having watched this whole exchange with increasing scepticism. "Does it at least pay well?"

"No, it doesn't" - confessed Lena. "I... I am not even sure! Azzan in Anvil is nice, but the rest of them throw nothing but insults at you. Just like the Skyrim assassins" - she looked at Hauk. "I wonder why I bother."

With the shopping done, they finally made it to the Wolf Sanctuary. It was time to eat, bathe and relax - they've done enough adventuring for one day.

Hauk's story is really interesting, being a special forces sort of guy, going off on missions and maybe not coming back for days or weeks. Yes, I wonder if Hauk and Iver might have traded places on occasion...





I like how Hauk first notices Lena making some advanced magics in the AU, and then wonders who she is.



She has a brother? This is a wild story, Elena. Especially how Hauk knows who the White Wolf is even before she is able to tell him.

I just finished that part where they are drinking in the inn, Hauk and Lena. One of these days I'll finish Post 1. It's looking like that'll be some time around Christmas. Okay, Thanksgiving, if I really buckle down.

That's an interesting thought... Iver has more to him than meets the eye, I'm sure. After all, they are brothers. But they disagree on a few points, Necromancy being one. Or may be Iver is just more cautious - he wouldn't be seen crossing the Arch-Mage. I hope Lena can tell them apart, though!

The news from the Northern Realms don't reach Tamriel very quickly, but eventually they do, and some of it is even true. ;-) The White Wolf is famous in several different ways (not all good), so of course Hauk had heard of him.



As long as you don't specify the year, you're fine. That first post is just a few bits to introduce the story, you might have read them on Beth already (unless you missed them there as well, that is) - but no pressure. The story does get wilder still, if you think what you've read so far was wild... then buckle up!!!

28 First Seed, 4E202 - Shrine of Azura - Sedor

"Well, now that we are in Cheydinhal, why don't we go North" - Lena suggested at breakfast. "I've always wanted to explore those ruins along the Northern road to Bruma."

"Have you been to the shrine of Azura?" - asked Hauk. "A sight to see."

"North it is!" - chimed in Jowan with enthusiasm.

The views were so beautiful that Lena didn't even insist on going at a run.

"For once!" - Hauk sounded relieved.

They got to the shrine of Azura - someone told Lena that the worshippers there were friendly. Well, they didn't attack, that's a plus.

"Do you mind - I'm trying to concentrate!" - one of them cut off Lena rather abruptly.

"Oh, Ok." She tried another one. "Hello!"

"You are in a holy place! State your business!"

"Umm..."

Did this go for "friendly" these days? Jowan turned around and walked off to enjoy the view of the mountains - he wasn't that patient.

"Tell me about this shrine" - asked Lena.

"People are filled with malice and prejudice these days. I won't speak with you unless you convince me of your good intentions" - said the worshipper, squinting in suspicion.

Lena turned around.

"Sheesh... speaking of malice and prejudice..."

No, Azura could sort out her own troubles, if that's what her worshippers were like. There were plenty of other adventures to be had. They turned West.

...

"Oh look - a cave" - Jowan noticed a wooden door in a rock. "I wonder what's inside - since there are no signs of anything here."

They tried the door, but it was locked.

"Another one of those magic locks" - said Lena stashing away Nocturnal's skeleton key. "Forget it - let's move on."

The continued along the mountain path.

"Isn't that an Ayleid ruin up ahead?" - Hauk pointed at some pillars. "That's more like it!"

Sedor housed ogres. Particularly large and ferocious ogres. The fighting was intense, with Jowan having to dash around to avoid getting hit - one hit by one of those ogres would definitely knock him out, if not crush his skull. Hauk took most of the crushing blows, and his armour was now dented all over again. Lena used a lot of poisons, and that was a big help, but still it wasn't easy.

Then, when they thought they were done, an arrow came from behind and got Jowan in the neck.

"Aaww!" - he spun around. "Bandits! Where did they come from?"

"Never mind that!" - bellowed Hauk. "And now you'll pay!" - he charged at them.

That arrow was poisoned, and Jowan was out of the game until the effects wore off. Lena pushed him into a side chamber and followed Hauk, summoning a clannfear - "Go get them!". Finally Jowan managed to get the arrow out of his neck and clear the poison - he was ready to fight again.

A scream and a thud made him jerk, then he heard people running in panic. He ran into the hall and saw Hauk on the ground with a dagger stuck to the hilt under his arm at an angle. A puddle of blood on the floor was quickly deepening.

"They got his heart" - he thought.

The screaming continued - it was Lena going against three bandits at once, one with a warhammer...

"Not good!" - Jowan thought. "She'll be next."

He slit his wrist and cast a spell. Everyone fell to the ground. Time seemed to stand still.

Hauk was dead.

28 First Seed, 4E202 - Hauk is dead - The Fade - Demons

"Send me after him! Send me into the Fade!" - Lena failed to resuscitate Hauk. "I've repaired his heart but he hasn't returned!"

"If he went to Sovngarde, there is no way back" - said Jowan grimly.

"He can't have! Not that fast! I don't believe it - I refuse to believe it! Send me there - I need to see for myself" - Lena was pleading now. "If he tells me he wants to stay, I'll let him."

"You've never been to the Fade" - Jowan was dubious. "You might not find him there, or the way back for that matter. I shall not be able to help you."

Lena was kneeling over Hauk's body. He fell in battle with the bandits, he wasn't just knocked out - one of the bandits had pierced his heart. Hauk was dead. Seeing him fall and not getting up, Lena was filled with rage and lost all caution. Jowan saw it and thought she'd be next to die. He slit his wrist and cast a mass paralysis spell. Everyone fell to the ground, as if time itself froze. Jowan threw the bandits into the side chamber and locked the gate. Paralysis was wearing off.

Lena was silently crying.

"I've got to try. Send me into the Fade. If I don't return, then so be it."

"All right" - Jowan was giving in. "But you realise that someone will have to die to let you do it? The ritual takes that much blood, and I can't give mine - I need to keep the portal open."

Lena looked at the groggy bandits in the chamber.

"Is the one that pierced his heart in there?" - she said with a hiss. "Use him! Use two, if you have to." Her icy look made the bandits stop groaning. "I won't be praying Arkay for their souls. Sithis take them."

...

Lena was walking through an icy landscape, struggling to stay upright against the blizzard. She could hardly see a thing. How would she find Hauk here? But she must try.

She noticed something ahead, glowing. A fire. She came closer. A campfire was burning cheerfully, with a pot of stew bubbling over it. The ground was warm, grassy. There was no blizzard, no wind. Hauk was sitting on a bench by the fire.

"Come and join me, Wolf!" - he called. "The stew is almost ready."

Was it that easy? Lena was wary - she knew of the illusions in the Fade, of spirits and demons that would try to bind her and keep her there, Jowan told her, he tried to prepare her as best he could. But this was Hauk, he was here, alive, smiling, she could just sit down with him on the bench and never leave...

"No" - she said, backing into the blizzard again. "You are not Hauk" - she sounded uncertain.

"Oh but I am!" - said Hauk, taking off his cuirass. "Look - here is the scar where you fixed my heart."

Lena took a step forward against her will. She had to see it, touch it, be sure.

"Come" - Hauk took her hand, pulling her gently towards him. "Kiss me."

"No, you are not Hauk!" - Lena screamed. "He'd never say that, never like this!"

She jumped back.

Hauk's face changed, he grew taller, he had a whip. It wasn't Hauk.

"You dare resist me, mortal?!" - the demon cried with Hauk's voice. He cracked the whip.

Lena ran into the blizzard.

...

"'You won't be able to fight in there as you are used to'" - Jowan's voice sounded in her head. "'You won't have your weapons' - that's what he said" - she thought trying to figure out what to do. "But magic? What about magic? What did he say about magic? 'Spells might not work the way you'd expect.' Oh" - she recalled. The danger she was in, started to dawn upon her. And the fact that she would probably wander in the Fade forever. Jowan wasn't exaggerating.

The blizzard lightened up, she saw a cave. Snowberries were growing by the entrance, bright red against the snow.

"As red as the blood I spilled in Whiterun that night" - Lucien came out of the cave. "Come inside."

She entered.

It was Fort Farragut.

"Come, let's have dinner" - Lucien waved towards the table. He walked over to the fire, started taking roast off the spit. "Ham or mutton?"

"Mutton with orange chutney, please..." - Lena murmured, recalling this scene. "You are not Lucien."

"Am I not?" - Lucien turned around, smiling. "But I am an assassin, sister."

He bared his dagger, advancing.

Instinctively, Lena drew her Sufferthorn. Wait, Jowan said she wouldn't have any weapons, so how..?

She was holding flowers - goldenrod, morning glory, lily of the valley, blue hyacinth.

"Ah, you kept my flowers" - Lucien said, his dagger vanishing. He was now close, pulling her into an embrace. "I love you." He kissed her.

"Lucien..." - she could hear herself say, or think. She so longed for him. At last...

"No, you are here to rescue Hauk, and this is not Lucien anyway" - a voice said in her head. "Lucien would never do that!"

She brushed the voice away. She didn't care.

"No, wake up!!" - the voice was getting stronger. "Now!"

A sharp pain in her neck made her jerk. A vampire.

She tore herself away, pushing the vampire with all her force. Her neck was bleeding profusely, a chunk missing. The vampire looked famished, his hunger fuelled by the sight of fresh blood.

"Run!!!" - the voice screamed in her head. She ran.

She was back in the blizzard, there was no cave and her neck wasn't bleeding. "Hauk, where are you?" - she thought looking around. Every direction looked the same.

...

"Stay sharp" - a voice said behind her. She twisted around. Hadvar. "Come on - this way."

Hadvar beckoned her to follow, he seemed to know where he was going. She followed.

They walked through the blizzard for a while, Hadvar leading, Lena not seeing how he knew the way. But Skyrim was his home, so she figured, he must have ways. They came to a crypt.

"In here" - he said. "I've set up camp, we can wait out the blizzard."

Lena was tired, frostbitten and hungry, so she agreed. She could not go back into the blizzard now anyway, she'd just die there. Hadvar passed her a bowl of stew.

"What are you doing back in Skyrim?" - he asked. "Not joining the Stormcloaks, I hope?" The polish on his Legion armour was reflecting the fire.

"Stormcloaks? No, not me" - Lena answered, eating and sensing that something was odd. But what?

"General Talius will have them all hang one day" - Hadvar said, looking straight at her. "The Legion always prevails."

"Where is Hauk?" - Lena asked, surprising herself. She didn't expect an answer.

"Oh, he was here" - Hadvar replied. "He wanted to stay in this crypt, but I told him it wasn't his time."

"What?!" - Lena jumped up. "So where did he go?"

"Back out" - a draugr was sitting where Hadvar had been. "To Sovngarde."

Lena ran towards the exit, then returned. Something that draugr had said...

"It wasn't his time, you said?" - she turned to the draugr.

"Sit down" - he resumed stirring the stew. "There is no rush, he won't get there yet." The draugr's piercing blue eyes were fixed on Lena's. "Why have you come?"

"I..." - Lena started, uncertain. "He fell in battle, and I was too late to bring him back."

"Then you must let him go" - the draugr said. "A Nord must die in battle."

"Perhaps, but not yet - it is not his time, you said it yourself!" - Lena felt that the draugr was tricking her.

"And who are you to him to demand his return?" - the draugr's gaze was hard to bare.

"I..." - she stumbled. "'Wolf is not ready to make any choices or decisions yet, it's not the time'" - Hauk's voice sounded in her head. Was it the time to make decisions now? Here, in the Fade?

"No, it's not the time" - another voice said in her head. "Get up and leave - this draugr won't help you."

"I am his friend, and I shall find him" - she said firmly and got up. The draugr followed her with his icy blue gaze.

...

The blizzard had stopped. A bright aurora was colouring the sky green, reflecting in the ice. The moons made the night into day. Lena was standing on a mountain top, overlooking the land below. She saw a camp by the water, with people gathered around the fire. She hoped they were hunters rather than bandits, and approached.

Several people sat by the fire, chatting and passing mead around. She saw Hauk - a pretty Dunmer girl was next to him, he was holding her close. They kissed, then went into a tent, lowering the door flap.

"They've been at it for days now" - one of the hunters said, looking at Lena. "Come and sit with us, you can wait for him if you like, but it might be all night" - he laughed, winking at her.

She sat down. What was she going to do? She had no claims on Hauk, she couldn't deny him a romance if that's what he wanted... Those slanted sanguine eyes always made him melt...

"What, here, in the Fade?" - a voice in her head sounded sceptical. "A bit too convenient, don't you think?"

"A Desire Demon?" - she thought, recalling Jowan warning her about them. "I think I met two of them already..." - she blushed to herself. "But if that's a demon there in the tent, then is that the real Hauk that she's seducing?"

"Or perhaps the whole scene is entirely for your benefit?" - the voice suggested. "A Rage Demon trying to get you jealous? A Despair Demon trying to make you give up?"

Was there a way to tell?

She looked at the hunters. They were chatting, drinking mead, roasting slaughterfish and salmon, and not paying her any attention. Wait, one was different... White hair... Amber eyes... Cat eyes...

"Come with me" - he said, pointing at another tent. "You asked for help at your practice" - he smiled, fingering his wolf medallion. "I am at your service."

She knew him, she was sure she knew him, but how? She could not recall. She was drawn to him... Another Desire Demon? She wasn't sure... she had to follow.

"I can teach you to fight better than anyone, I can make you into the Ultimate Assassin, I can give you more magicka than you can imagine, even rid you of the curse of the Apprentice" - the man with cat eyes said. "And of course" - he snapped his fingers - "I can give you any luxury you could possibly dream of." The barren tent was now overflowing with velvets and silks, fruit, wine, fine food - anything. "Just say the word. And you can have it all - there is no need to choose" - he smiled, inviting her to join him on the cushions.

"No need to choose..?" - Lena repeated, looking at him. "And what would you want in return?"

"Nothing!" - he laughed. "Stay here, enjoy yourself, learn, grow, or just relax and lay back - it's your life! Have it all."

"And... what about my friends?" - Lena was fighting a nagging feeling that something was off.

"Friends?" - the man looked at her in disbelief. "You mean the ones that thrust you here without a way out? Or the ones that turned away because you were a vampire? Or may be the ones that just wanted you in bed? Because why else would they bother? Which ones do you mean?"

A string of memories rushed through Lena's mind. Yes, she knew exactly who he was referring to. But wait, was it really that bad? What about... this other guy... what was his name again? Why was she here anyway? And where was "here"?

"Here is in this tent in Skyrim" - the man answered, as if he'd read her thoughts. "Your face speaks volumes - I don't read minds" - he smiled.

It all made sense now. She was lost, but now she found a place where she was wanted. The man was nice, he wasn't making advances, he was offering her food and drink, books to read and spells to learn. Why not stay a while. Relax.

She let herself fall on the cushions and closed her eyes.

28 First Seed, 4E202 - The Fade - Memories

"Wake up!" - a shock spell zapped Lena. "Up, up, on your feet now!" - a voice shouted in her head. She'd heard this voice before.

"What?!" - she got angry. "I'm warm and well fed, and the cushions are soft, what do you want from me? I'm not going anywhere! I am done!" She fell back onto the cushions, her anger fizzled out.

"Up, I said!" - the voice shouted, a shock spell zapping her again.

"Aaww! Get away from me!" - Lena rubbed the singed spot and went back to sleep.

"Now!!" - the voice bellowed and a rather more powerful shock zapped Lena.

"Hey!!" - she was on her feet. "I'll show you! Get lost!!"

The zapping continued, coming from the Ether itself, it seemed, as Lena could not see her opponent. She ran out of the tent.

The land around the tent was barren - not icy, not covered in snow, not even rocky. It was just grey, dull, stretching in all directions as far as the eye could see. She turned around to go back to the tent, ready to forget this interruption - there was obviously nothing to come out for. Zap! A lightning bolt got her to whip around.

"This way!" - a voice said and another lightning hit a bit further on. "March!" Zap.

"Ok, ok, I'm going" - Lena mumbled. This was the easier thing to do. Go see what the voice wants, then get back to the tent and sleep.

The voice led her for a while, showing the way with lightning bolts and zapping her into obedience.

"How much further?" - Lena complained. "What do you want from me?"

"I want you to find yourself!" - the voice replied. "Surely, the Sloth could not have sucked all of it out yet?"

The Sloth... The man with cat eyes? The nice tent to rest for as long as she wanted... Yes, the Sloth Demon... "'He'll make you forget everything you knew, you'll sleep in his domain forever - be watchful'" - Jowan's voice sounded in Lena's memory. "'Friends? What friends?'" - she recalled the man with cat eyes. "What have I forgotten?" - she thought with horror.

...

The landscape changed in the distance. Lena no longer needed the lightning to show her the way, she went towards the change. Swamps. Overcast skies. Stench. Corpses everywhere - soldiers. A battlefield. She looked around - she was in the middle of it.

She saw fire in the distance. Not a steady burning campfire, but flashes of it, as if someone was using fire spells. She walked towards it. A different stench mixed into the stench of corpses - rotten flesh. Walking rotten flesh. Ghouls. One man was fighting a whole pack - a witcher.

He was successful. He stopped, turned the last ghoul over with his boot. Looked around, found the nest, put a bomb inside. "Filthy beasts" - he muttered. Then fell to his knees, exhausted. He was bleeding. White hair, amber eyes. Cat eyes. Wolf medallion.

"Geralt!" - Lena remembered the scene, remembered finding him there, pouring a potion down his throat.

"Hello, sis" - he had said.

She rushed to him now, she'd do it all over again, she grabbed his shoulders... he wasn't there. The vision faded away like smoke. The land around her was barren and grey again.

...

"He made me forget my brother!" - Lena was getting angry at the Sloth Demon. "But that wasn't all. What else?"

"Don't get caught out again, if you want to return" - a voice said in her head.

"Return? Return where?"

Wait, this was important. If she had to return, she first needed to remember why she had left, and where she was now. Because she must have had a purpose... Do something and return.

The voice was silent. She had to work it out on her own. At least she didn't need to be zapped into doing it now.

She started walking, doesn't matter which way, she already figured out how this place worked, whatever it was. You walked, things appeared.

...

She saw a fort in the distance. A crumbling wall around it, but the tower still intact, like any old fort in Cyrodiil or Skyrim. She entered. Something was different, but she didn't know what.

"Here we go again" - she thought. "What kind of demon now?"

She went through some passages and entered a large well-lit chamber. A strange contraption occupied most of free space: three tripods with mirrors and crystals, focussing a beam of light in the centre. A dark-haired woman in black and white was fiddling with it.

"No, he isn't there" - Lena heard her mutter. "Perhaps Philipa would know?"

She cast a spell and an image of another woman appeared where the beams crossed.

"Gosh, you look dreadful" - was her greeting.

"And nice to see you too, Philipa" - the woman in black and white said. "Do you know where Geralt has gone to?"

"Why would I?" - she looked indifferent. "I'm not the one who's desperate to sleep with him. Swallow your pride and ask Triss."

"I have" - the black-and-white woman answered. "She doesn't know. And I checked - he isn't with her."

"Well" - Philipa raised an eyebrow and looked around the room. "Perhaps you need to search somewhere else entirely. Since you've left our realm already. Why don't you ask her?" - she pointed at Lena and disappeared.

Lena was watching it and thinking that surely, she must know who they were... Who the woman in black and white was, at least... Geralt... she was looking for her brother. But why?

The woman in black and white spun around and saw Lena standing there, not recognising her. She zapped her with a shock spell. "Wake up! Remember me!" - her voice was familiar. Yes, somewhat changed, but it was the voice that's been following Lena around, and the shock spell only confirmed it.

"Stop zapping me" - Lena said. "I know you but I can't remember."

"Damned Sloth Demon!" - the woman clenched her fists. "Follow me" - she commanded and walked out. Lena followed.

...

"Well, if this doesn't work, then I don't know what will" - the woman gave Lena a steaming potion. "It's a memory potion. If it works, it will likely overwhelm you, all memories rushing in at once. You'll faint, but I'll be there, and when you come to, eventually, you should be all right. And remember everything."

"Should be?" - Lena didn't like the sound of it too much.

"Oh, just drink it! What have you got to lose?"

What, indeed? She drank. She fainted.

...

Lena woke up in a bed in a circular chamber, probably a fort. A dark-haired woman in black and white was sitting at a desk with her back to her. A faint scent of lilac and gooseberries filled the room.

"Yen?" - Lena sat up. "Are you a vision?"

"Not a vision, and it's good to have you back!" - Yennefer jumped up. "You remember me, what else?"

"Geralt is waiting for you" - Lena remembered Geralt's tired face back in Skyrim.

"But where is he? I searched everywhere..." - Yen broke off. "No, we'll talk about this later. What else do you remember? Do you know where we are?"

"'Send me after him! Send me into the Fade!'" - a voice echoed in Lena's mind, and she saw herself kneeling over Hauk's body. Now she remembered.

"The Fade. I am here to find Hauk."

"And not to succumb to demons" - added Yennefer smiling. "But I think you've learned a thing or two by now. Come, I'll help you."

"Thank you" - Lena took her hand. "Wolf is in Skyrim, he misses you."

The fort vanished. Yennefer had pushed Lena into a portal.

...

Mountains. Lena stood on a slope of a mountain, she was high enough so that all was white around her, but below, in the canyon, she saw grass and trees in bloom. This wasn't Skyrim - these were the Jeralls in Cyrodiil.

"Wait, wasn't it where we got into that fight with the bandits?"

She looked around, yes, it probably was. A figure was standing on a mountain slope further ahead - a man, perhaps? She started towards him.

"Hauk!" - she was close enough to recognise him.

"Hello" - he said, with a blank face. "Nice view from here."

Lena was taken aback - this wasn't the reaction she had expected. He didn't seem to even recognise her, or if he did, he didn't seem to care at all. Was that another demon? Or was that Hauk after a demon was done with him? She had to be cautious. "Don't succumb to another demon" - she heard Yennefer's words in her head.

"Hauk" - Lena started carefully. "Have you eaten? There's a campsite nearby, I've got mutton on the spit."

She didn't know if there was a campsite nearby, but she figured it would appear, if she wanted it to. Roasted mutton was Hauk's favourite, if he didn't respond, it wasn't Hauk.

"Whaaa--?" - he looked around, as if seeing her for the first time. "Wolf? What are you doing here?"

"Roasting some mutton, it seems" - she smiled. "Come on." She took his hand. It was warm.

...

"Wake up, wake up!" - someone was casting healing spells at Lena. The room was spinning. Wait... perhaps she should open her eyes.

A face of a dark-haired young man was coming into focus. "Come on, you're back, you must be back!" He was pale, but still casting spells.

"Jowan?" - Lena recognised him. "You've done it!" - she kissed him. "Hauk?"

"Sleeping" - Jowan looked embarrassed. "He's been back for a while already... But you... What took you so long? I could barely keep the portal open."

"But you have" - Lena got up. "I... got side-tracked" - she said, blushing all over. "Demons..."

"Say no more" - Jowan smiled. "I've been there, you know. You help someone, you think you're done, you let your guard down, and that's when it happens."

"Yeah..." There was no need to specify which demon got her - again.

"You're back, that's what counts" - Jowan said firmly. "The rest stays in the Fade."

29 First Seed, 4E202 - The Hidden Camp - Bruma - Rubies

"Is it midday already? How long have I slept?" - Hauk was crawling out of a low tent in the Hidden Camp. "Is this Sedor?" - he pointed at an Ayleid ruin nearby. "I feel like I drank too much last night... The dreams I had - you wouldn't believe!"

He sat by the fire with Lena and Jowan, stretching.

"Careful with that" - Lena touched his side. "It hasn't properly healed yet."

"Whaa--?" - Hauk looked at her suspiciously.

"Some of those dreams..." - Jowan started cautiously - "they were not all dreams, I think."

Hauk stared at them.

"Ok, stop beating about the bush and tell me what happened."

"You... died" - said Lena. "I had to repair your heart - it was pierced - so be careful with that scar in your side."

"Riiiight..." - Hauk touched the scar. "Yes, I see. This explains Sovngarde. Except... they didn't let me in. Said someone wanted me back... They'd let me in if that person stopped searching."

Lena turned bright red.

"I am sorry, it wasn't easy... It took me such a long time... And I did stop... once" - she looked at Hauk apologetically. "I couldn't have done it without Yen."

It was Hauk's turn to go bright red.

"You went after me..?"

Now Jowan was getting hot under the collar.

"Stop it, both of you!" - he jumped up. "It was all my fault, I opened the portal! Sacrificed two bandits to do it, too! Sithis will be pleased now."

"What?" - Lena and Hauk said in unison, staring at him.

"The more I do it, the closer he gets" - said Jowan, sitting down. "It's not that I do it a lot... But I had to this time!"

They sat in silence for a while, letting it all sink in. Just what each of them was willing to do for the others, including Hauk of course - he died, remember?

"Well..." - Lena took their hands. "I think that makes us friends."

...

"Do you want to spend another night here?" - asked Hauk, getting up. "Or shall we get going?"

"Are you sure you're up to it?" - asked Lena, looking uncertain.

"I didn't say let's go fight some more bandits" - he winked. "I was thinking more along the lines of following the road to a town - Bruma or Cheydinhal - and spending the next night at an inn."

"I wouldn't say no to a bed inside a house" - seconded Jowan. "And I've never been to Bruma."

"Bruma it is then" - Lena got up too.


The road to Bruma was remarkably devoid of fights, not counting a few wolves. The views were magnificent and the fresh mountain air did everyone a lot of good. They reached Bruma in the early evening.

"Jerall View Inn, I think" - Hauk looked at Lena and Jowan. "They've got better beds."

"And food" - added Lena. "Unless you wanted to go drinking at Olav's first?"

"Drinks first" - said Jowan decisively. "Then eat and sleep" - he gave them a wide grin.

...

"Iver!" - a tall Altmer girl ran up to Hauk and squeezed him in an embrace, kissing him before he could say anything (he didn't try). "Where have you been? It's been ages!"

"Ummm..." - Hauk's attempt at replying got swallowed in another kiss.

Lena and Jowan were watching with amusement, as well as the rest of the clientele at Olav's.

"Ahem" - Olav touched the girl on the shoulder. "Camia? That's not Iver."

Camia jumped back as if she got burned.

"What?! How?"

She was shifting her gaze from Hauk to Olav and back, Hauk looked perplexed but otherwise rather pleased with himself. Olav cleared his throat again.

"This is Hauk, Iver's twin brother."

Camia went so red, it couldn't be healthy.

"Here - sit down" - Olav pushed a chair towards her. "They look completely alike, so don't blame yourself for the confusion."

"I am very pleased to make your acquaintance" - said Hauk. "And to find out that my brother has such a charming friend."

"Oh I'm so sorry" - Camia found her voice. "Gods know what you must think of me!" She went red again.

"I wouldn't worry" - said Lena. "Hauk gets it all the time."

The look of outrage on Hauk's face was enough to diffuse the situation. Everyone laughed.

...

"...and then he zapped that ogre with such a force, that it just fell over and died!" - Camia was telling the story of how she met Iver. Apparently, he saved her from some ogres out in the wilderness.

"Yeah, that sounds about right" - confirmed Hauk. "Iver was always good with his shock spells. But if I may - what were you two doing there in the first place?"

"Hauk!" - Lena protested. "What kind of a personal question is that? Ignore him, Camia."

"Well, we were looking for rubies, of course" - said Camia as if it was self-explanatory. "In the Red Ruby Cave? To bind Fire Atronachs with long term binding" - she explained seeing that it wasn't in fact self-explanatory. "I'm from the College of Winterhold. I met Iver here in Bruma - the Mages Guild kindly sent a battlemage to help - that was Iver."

"And did you find any rubies?" - asked Lena knowing that the answer would be "no". Cave names were never so obvious.

"No, strangely enough, we didn't" - said Camia, still surprised by it. "Just the ogres." She looked at them all and didn't see any of them surprised. "Say, you look like you know your way around caves..."

"Err... rubies are rare..." - Lena started.

"If we find any, we'll be sure to save them for you" - interrupted Hauk. "I'll have Iver bring them over to you in Winterhold. A trip will do him good."

Camia blushed but accepted the offer with thanks.

...

"So what are you going to do about the rubies?" - asked Lena when they were on their way to the Jerall View Inn for the night.

"I have a few at home" - winked Hauk. "From Skyrim, in fact. They are a lot more common there, but Camia didn't seem to know that. Iver needs to go see her, or else he'll be fit to join a monastery soon."

Did anyone think that Bruma was the city of romance? No? Then they should reconsider.

30 First Seed, 4E202 - Bruma Mages Guild - Walking in the Jeralls

The first thing to do in the morning was to stop by the Mages Guild and see if they had any poisons in stock as Lena had used up a lot of hers in all the fighting.

"No, we don't really sell poisons, you know" - said Selena. "They don't make the right impression on people, according to the Arch Mage. I have a few ingredients you could use, but even that..."

"Traven and his rules of good conduct again!" - fumed Hauk. "Does the man have any grasp of reality? We need poisons for goblins and ogres, for Akatosh's sake!"

"Well..." - Selena looked sympathetic. "There's a cave not far from here - the Silver Tooth Cave - it's full of wisp stalks and cairn bolete mushrooms, although it does have goblins inside. But there's quite a lot of milk thistle and wormwood along the way, too."

"Yes, we passed it yesterday..." - Lena looked at Jowan and Hauk. "There was a fort nearby as well... But you must promise to hang back and let me take the lead in the fighting" - she turned to Hauk. "Until you're fully recovered."

"I'm recovered!" - protested Hauk. "I'm a battlemage, remember - I've had my share of cuts and scrapes over the years!"

"Yeah, and how many times have you died from a dagger in your heart before?" - asked Lena not giving up.

"Dagger in your heart? That sounds dangerous" - Jeanne walked in. "Nobody can survive that."

"Quite" - Lena replied, looking at Hauk with significance.

"Of course a Warlock like yourself would have no problem repairing the tear, I'm sure" - Jeanne continued. "Still, I'd say it would be a very cruel practical joke. Unless of course Hannibal Traven thinks otherwise" - she smiled brightly. Selene shook her head, suddenly remembering that she had a potion to mix. Volanaro walked out of the room.

"What?" - Jeanne looked around, perplexed.

"Nothing" - Lena and Hauk replied, and Lena turned to follow Volanaro. He had some interesting spells on offer.

"A Warlock, wow, congratulations! You've done well!" - Volanaro greeted Lena when they were out of Jeanne's earshot. "I remember when you came here for your recommendation... both times" - he winked.

"Yeah, these ranks keep stacking up" - said Lena - "even though it isn't magic that I do to earn them, but plain fighting. You'd think it was Fighters Guild. Doesn't feel right."

Lena looked at Volanaro - a mischievous smile was playing on his lips.

"Well, you remember that little joke we played on Jeanne? She was searching for her Manual for days... Can't cast a single spell without it, I think it is enchanted" - he winked. "But jokes aside, things might change here in a not too distant future. You do know why we are the only Guild Hall without a specialisation?"

"I do" - said Hauk. "But Wolf was away at the time, I think she might have missed it. I'll fill her in."

"Please do" - Volanaro shook Hauk's hand. "Considering her rank advances, she is likely to become involved."

Jowan remembered reading some books at the Mages Guild in Anvil.

"Oh, from before the..." - he caught himself. "Sorry. I read your charter - some pages were missing..."

"Exactly" - said Volanaro, looking at Jowan's wrists. "Come and join us after... you know. When things will have changed."

"Oh!" - Lena caught on. "If Kvatch was for Alchemy, then Bruma... I see. Yes, we shall probably see each other again then. Traven seems to think I'm his puppet."

"Does he know the colour of Warlock's robes?" - asked J'skar appearing next to Volanaro.

"He must be colour-blind" - said Lena, smiling.

"He is not" - replied J'skar. "J'skar thinks that Wolf has to be careful. Traven is trying to get her killed."

...

After some discussion, they decided to take another walk in the mountains, picking some milk thistle and wormwood along the way. Whether or not they'd make it to the Silver Tooth Cave, would become clear later on.

"We should take Jowan to the Frostcrag Spire" - said Hauk. "That's a sight to see!"

That was a good idea, and they could pick ingredients from the garden there too, although Lena admitted that she still hadn't furnished it.

"You own a mage's tower?" - Jowan was impressed.

"It was left to me by some long-lost relative" - she said blushing slightly. "Quite the eccentric, it seems, although probably not as evil as that other great-uncle."

The Frostcrag Spire was the same as last time: impressive on the outside and bare on the inside.

"And those teleports" - said Hauk shuddering. "Did I tell you how much I hate them? And here you have to use them to get from one floor to the next!"

"Yeah, not my idea of a home either..." - said Lena. "Perhaps we'll come across a mage who would be pleased with it."

It was nice to visit, but not to stay, and they continued their walk. They came to the camp on the Gnoll mountain and stayed there for lunch enjoying the views of Bruma. Then they took the Northern path back, passing by the Dragonclaw Rock.


"That is the way to Skyrim" - said Lena looking wistful. "Through the Pale Pass and onto Helgen."

"And you want to go there again" - said Hauk, reading her face.

"Yeah..." - she looked at him. "If you're coming with me. And no business this time, just exploring." She turned to Jowan - "This goes for you too, Jowan. There's a lot to explore in Skyrim."

Jowan looked at Lena and Hauk and shook his head.

"That's too cold for my liking. You two go, I'll wait for you here in Bruma" - he smiled. "I think Volanaro will make for an interesting acquaintance."

They returned to Bruma discussing preparations for the trip. They never made it to the Silver Tooth Cave - the goblins got off easy this time.

Passing through Bruma I happened to read an add on the bulletin board. Thinking of picking up a suitable home for a mage I took advantage of the offer only to find that I too was underwhelmed by the tower.

I know. Lena is willing to give it away... almost free! She went to see what the upgrades were... Overpriced was an understatement. And all strictly for a single person without visitors or - gods forbid - friends who might spend the night. Why, there wasn't even a bathroom or a pool! It's almost like that Rowley Eardwulf character who clearly swindled her out of the actual contents of the Sanctuary - was a whole group of assassins supposed to share a single coffin? In particular AFTER they cured vampirism? Didn't think so. But then Rowley was a swindler, of course, whereas this Altmer lady in the Imperial City seems to have the actual stuff... Lots of magical artefacts, true, but so poor in life's comforts. So Lena figured it wasn't worth while. But someone might like it - with a few changes to the decor, I should think.

31 First Seed - 2 Rain's Hand, 4E202 - Holiday in Skyrim - Shimmermist Cave - Freezing cold

The day saw Lena and Hauk cross the border to Skyrim, turning West from Helgen to say hello to Geralt at Lake View. Lena had something to add to that, too.


"I saw Yen" - she said at dinner.

Geralt dropped his spoon, splashing the stew on the table cloth.

"What?! How?"

"Umm... She's been searching for you" - Lena decided to circumvent the question. "I told her where you went, she'll be coming over now, I'm sure."

Geralt smiled, his scars almost fading. Then the looked grim again.

"You didn't answer me - how could you have seen her?" He correctly deduced that not answering was not good news.

"I... umm..." - Lena wasn't quite sure how to say that she went into the Fade after Hauk when he died.

"She went after me" - said Hauk - "to get me to come back after some bandit stabbed me."

"Riiight..." - Geralt was taking it in. "And you came back... both of you... obviously. How did you do it?"

"A blood mage opened a portal..." - Lena really didn't want to go into it. "It's not important! The important thing was that Yen was there, looking for you - asking Philipa to help for Akatosh's sake! You should have told her where you went... She'll have to exit the... Fade... and then make her way to here... It'll be a while still, but she's on her way, so be patient."

This all came out as a flood.

"The Fade?" - Geralt blinked. "She went into the Fade looking for me?"

"She... well... she said she looked everywhere, asked everyone... No one knew. I suppose she thought you might have died" - suggested Lena. "Or may be it was an easier way to search? Sort of like from above?" - she offered hopefully.

"Right, no more tests then" - said Geralt, still looking worried but lightening up. "I'll need to see about finding a house - my own house now. She'll be here in a few months."

Having Yennefer arrive after all that trouble and not find a suitable accommodation was a far more dangerous prospect than travelling through the Fade.

...

"What brings you two to Skyrim again?" - asked Geralt when they were sitting out on the deck drinking mead. The evening was beautiful.

"We just wanted to relax" - said Lena, looking at Hauk - "and Hauk needs to recover from his wound."

"I'm recovered!" - protested Hauk. "I think it is you who needed a holiday. How many demons did you face?"

"Too many" - agreed Lena.

"Well, that's what friends are for" - concluded Geralt. "Like Letho going after the Wild Hunt with me... Even when I couldn't remember anything, I still knew he was a friend. Such things stay with you no matter what." He looked at Lena and Hauk and smiled. "So you decided to come to Skyrim to fight some draugr for entertainment, have you?"

"Dwelmer automatons, we rather thought..." - Lena smiled. "Those ruins we came across last time? We want to explore a bit."


Lena and Hauk set off in the morning going North. They didn't have any particular plan, but knew that there were quite a few Dwelmer ruins in that direction. Passing on the East side of Whiterun, they spotted a path into the mountains and took it. It led them to a cave, skulls and bones on sticks announced the falmer inside.

"And probably chaurusses" - noted Lena looking at Hauk. "What do you think?"

"In we go."

The Shimmermist Cave lived up to its name - warm mist hung in the air, and it shimmered. Literally. Quite romantic, if it wasn't for the poison-spitting giant insects and vicious falmer, also looking like insects in their chaurus chitin armour. One of the passages even opened onto a Dwelmer chamber, complete with a Centurion spraying superheated steam.


"Wow, you broke it!" - Lena could hardly believe her eyes when she finally caught up with Hauk, having led away a falmer nightstalker. "I didn't think it was possible!"

"Of course it is possible" - Hauk looked rather pleased with himself. "Shock spells disrupt their crystals, you know."

"Yeah, that's if you manage to zap them before they squash you with the hammer or boil you alive."

The fun had begun.

...

Continuing further North, they stopped at the Nightgate Inn for the night.

"Oh, there are two Dwelmer ruins not far from here" - the innkeep said when he heard what they were after. "Just to the South."


The weather was bitter cold, with the blizzard so thick you could hardly see three steps ahead of you.

"Let's hope we find those ruins quickly and go inside" - said Lena shivering. Her iron armour left her arms exposed, and she was slowly freezing.

"Have you considered wearing some furs under that armour?" - asked Hauk, but Lena pretended not to hear.

...
Irkngthand looked impressive. A large courtyard with a three-story building, all promising an interesting exploration. By the time Lena and Hauk had dealt with the bandit welcoming party, Lena started looking like a frost atronach.

"You need to warm up - now" - said Hauk, pulling her towards the entrance. "There's a campsite with a good fire right over there."

"Wouldn't it be better to find the door and get inside instead?" - Lena protested, looking around.

"Yeah, but do you see a door? Didn't think so" - Hauk was adamant. "We've scaled this side of the building several times now, and there is no door, well, there is one - but it's all blocked up. We'll look for another entrance later - once you've been defrosted."

He had a point. Lena had also conceded that her armour wasn't keeping the cold out, and pinched standard steel armour from the bandit chief. It was too big, but could be adjusted to fit her reasonably well.

"But it's so heavy!" - she complained. "Don't throw away my iron set - I'll see about padding it with fur later. And... can you carry it, please? I can't carry both..." Women.

Hauk sighed, but stashed her armour in his pack. Breton women were neither strong nor frost-resistant, but they did have certain other good points...

...

After a good rest and a meal, they decided to check whether the ruin could be entered from above - through a make-shift hatch in the roof. They found the hatch, but it was locked.

"Another one of those magical locks" - Lena gritted her teeth. "No, it's no use. What about that other ruin that the innkeep mentioned? Let's move on."

Raldbthar was just to the South East.

2-3 Rain's Hand, 4E202 - From Ralbthar to Ivarstead

2-3 Rain's Hand - Ralbthar

Slept inside, found some hay piles in falmer huts. The falmer had fires going, so cooked some food, too. Found an Aetherial Shard and a mechanism that we could not activate.

Took an elevator to the surface - the entrance is above the main entrance to Ralbthar.

3 Rain's Hand

It's still early, and cold. We rode East then South - found Mara's Eye pond. Beautiful. There's a small island in the middle, a boat moored on its shore. There must be something there.

Found a trapdoor, a small cave inside - also quite beautiful, if not for the vampires. But plenty of gold, so it's all worth while.

Hauk says I should have taken the vampire's armour - one red, one black, both sexy. Mmm... no. No, thanks.

Going South - passing Gallows Rock. Let someone else clear it out.

South of that - a shrine to Talos. Did you know that they now want you to pay 100 septims every time you want a blessing? It's not an "offering" if you get something in exchange, it's a purchase. I'll need to invest in Cure Disease potions.

Cradlecrush Rock. Don't want to get crushed today. Ride on.

Crossing the river, we see a spider, it picks a fight. Hauk zaps it. Spider spits venom. Hauk gets angry - "A true Nord never backs down!" This doesn't apply to true Nord spiders though because it tries to run away. Eight legs or not, but Hauk is angry and spider stands no chance. Note to self: avoid making Hauk angry.

We proceed South. Holiday is in full swing.

Stumbled on a path up the mountain with arches and steps - a crypt. Went to have a look-see. The door is unlocked, there's a young chap inside - Golldir. Seems nice. Asks us to help him deal with a necromancer - some family feud, and he decided to take it out on their dead. Goldilocks - err, Golldir - is terrified of the place, got locked up there as a kid or something. But he's brave enough to ask for help and admit a weakness, all good points in my book. We'll have a quick snack and go in. It's lunch time - Roach is already munching on thistle outside.

That necromancer was evil. But a strong mage! Used interesting teleportation magic - Dunmer. Telvanni? Probably not. I wish I had a friend in Morrowind.

We are headed to Ivarstead, but make a detour to see the geisers. Always impressive.

Mistwatch - bandits. At least they have the decency to warn. Leave them be.

Darkwater crossing. Volunteered to deliver a message to Windhelm. Wait, weren't we going in the opposite direction? What was I thinking!

Another detour to the Rift Imperial camp. Padded my iron armour with wolf fur, got rid of the heavy steel - the quartermaster was happy. "Oh look at this perfect sabretooth cat pelt!" - he said. "The commander will be pleased." We stopped for a meal because of course Optio Serck-Hanssen had to have a chat with the Legate. Well, at least it got us free mead.

Ivarstead - Vilemyr Inn. "Hello, love birds!" Oh, the innkeep remembers us. Ok, never mind.

Hauk's armour got scratched in the fight with the draugr, he spends the evening polishing it. I watch (he doesn't wear a shirt). Not sure how much sleep we'll get. But there's no rush to get up in the morning!

4 Rain's Hand, 4E202 - Geisers - Windhelm - White Phial

There was no need to get up particularly early, and so they didn't. But eventually Lena was up - the smell of fresh sweetrolls tempting her out of bed. Hauk followed.

"Now that I promised we'd take this note to Windhelm, we actually have to go there" - she said, checking the saddle on Roach. "Straight through the geisers?"

"Let's go!" - Hauk was in the saddle going North.

...

"Straight through the geisers, she says!" - Roach was complaining loudly, even though Lena couldn't make out a word of it. "More like straight down the waterfall and off a cliff! For your information, there is no straight road between Ivarstead and Fort Amol!"

Lena was gingerly nudging Roach to descent down a nearly vertical cliff. In her defence, there were plenty of stepping stones and Roach didn't fall once.

"Do I look like a mountain goat?" - Roach wasn't going to let her indignation go unnoticed. "Or the Shadowmere? You've been around Lucien too much, that's what! It got into your head! Oh" - they stood on a road by Fort Amol - "and now someone zapped me!"

"I'll see you burn!" - a mage charged at them casting shock spells.

"Umm..." - started Lena unsheathing her sword, a fire playing in the other hand. "That's the wrong spell for burning."

But before she could do anything, the mage dropped dead at her feet.

"There's a perfectly good road down the mountain, you know" - Hauk said, putting out his own shock spell. "Do you want to clear out the fort?"

"Nah, leave them be" - Lena got into the saddle. "We are on holiday, remember?"

...

"If there ever was trouble, this is it" - Lena said nudging Roach away from the cabin. "The sort of trouble we should walk away from."

They found a riverside shack with a large bear sleeping peacefully inside, having dismembered and eaten the previous inhabitant.


"Shouldn't we avenge the unfortunate person inside though?" - asked Hauk moving away too.

"And what would that accomplish? It won't bring him back. Let's go."

The bear continued snoring.

...

In Windhelm they finally sold the loot that they didn't want to keep. War time prices meant that they didn't get much money for it. Still, it was enough for a meal and a room, and a few bits and bobs, too. They dropped off the note at the White Phial, sold their surplus ingredients and... got saddled with another fetch quest.

"If you don't want to help people, you shouldn't be asking them about their problems" - remarked Hauk when they were outside. "Wasn't there something else we needed to fetch from that very same cave? For another old alchemist?"

"A ring of perfect mixtures" - Lena recalled. "If this was a hidden laboratory of some alchemical genuis, then it is not surprising that it would contain several interesting items."

Back at the market a local farmer selling fresh produce asked Lena to deliver some nightshade extract to the court wizard.

"I'm stuck here manning the stall all day" - she said. "Would you be so kind? Gets you to see the Palace from the inside, too."

The woman was nice, so Lena agreed.

"How do you feel about going into the Palace?" - she asked Hauk as they approached the entrance. "Do you want to skip this one?"

"Whatever for?" - Hauk raised an eyebrow. "It's not like I'm wearing Imperial armour. And even then... Windhelm doesn't consist exclusively of Stormcloaks, you know."

"Not exclusively..." - Lena thought - "But close! Certainly among the Nords..."

But - what was it? "A true Nord never backs down!" Oh.

She needn't have worried though. Ulfric was too busy discussing the war with whoever he was discussing the war with, and the door to the upper level of the Palace was right by the entrance. The court wizard by the name of Wuunferth the Unliving (!!) turned out to be an elderly mage interested in any and all aspects of magic and no aspects of politics. Ulfric didn't need him, and he needed Ulfric even less.

"We are doing well leaving each other well alone" - he said. "Oh - the nightshade extract... thank you. Poisonous of course, but it also has other uses..." He didn't elaborate, and Lena didn't think it was her place to ask.

After the Palace of the Kings they needed a breath of fresh air and went to the Grey Quarter - the New Gnisis Cornerclub, to be precise. A lot less stuffy than the Palace, but instead filled with the air of discontent. The Dunmer were not treated fairly! No? No less fairly than the Nords in Morrowind. It goes both ways.

After lunch it was time to go find this treasure trove of alchemy - the Forsaken Cave.

The weather turned for the worse with the blizzard getting heavy, the icy wind howling. Lena's padded armour did a decent job of keeping the cold out, but her Breton blood wasn't sufficiently frost-resistant.

"You are turning blue again" - said Hauk. "You need a drink." He handed her a bottle of Nord mead. "It may not taste as sweet as Honningbrew or Black-Briers, but it keeps the cold out better."

Indeed, it worked. Lena felt warmer and the cold didn't seem to get at her so much. She made a mental note to buy Nord mead wherever she saw it, whatever the cost.

Forsaken Cave led to Forsaken Crypt, the burial place of that famous alchemist Curalmil. Of course, his draugr was guarding the phial.

"Umm... Curalmil does not sound like a Nord name" - said Lena looking at the pacified draugr. "What is he doing in a Nord crypt as a draugr?"

"Ancient Nords were more accepting of foreigners than modern ones" - said Hauk grimly. "If he made his life in Skyrim and was considered one of the people, they'd bury him in the Nord tradition. And it seems he was respected in life - he practically presides over this crypt."

They found the phial, but it was broken.

"Something tells me Nurelion is not going to be happy" - said Lena with regret. "Can't say I blame him. Well, let's take it back as it is."

They returned to Windhelm in the dead of night. The Candlehearth Hall was welcoming, as usual.

Poor Roach, the mountain goat cliff runner!

'The Dunmer were not treated fairly! No? No less fairly than the Nords in Morrowind. It goes both ways.'
By Julianos' little teapot, this is ever so true! Having traveled most of Tamriel, the Dunmer of Morrowind and Altmer of Summerset are notably worse about treating outsiders than the Nords of Skyrim. That said, a breath of fresh air after leaving Ulfric's palace is always welcome.

5 Rain's Hand, 4E202 - Stenvar - Ansilvund

"Well, what do you fancy doing today?" - asked Lena after they delivered the broken White Phial to Nurelion.

"Mzulft" - said Hauk decisively. "There's that Aetherium shard there, and of course the ruin proper. As well as a few caves nearby - who knows, they could be interesting. And..." - he hesitated. "Let's take Stenvar with us. The boy looked bored, he could use an outing."

"Hardly a boy any more" - Lena smiled. "He looks fully grown to me."

"Still a welp" - Hauk grinned. "And will probably complain about the cold in the caves. He always liked forts as a kid, always running off, and his mother going after him. His mother! She was a fine woman..." Hauk trailed off in memories. "I stayed with them quite a lot."

"Sounds like you knew his mother really well" - Lena prompted cautiously.

"Yes... Her husband had run off soon after the wedding, gods know what he was thinking - just as the War started. I met her right after that, running a farm on her own."

"So Stenvar..?"

"Is not mine, I don't think" - Hauk was looking into the distance. "I think she was already pregnant by her husband. But we'll never know, I guess. And" - he looked at Lena sternly - "he doesn't know it, so please refrain from any mentions of me possibly being his father."

"I think by now he would have guessed!" - Lena exclaimed. "He's old enough to know how these things work!"

Hauk glared at her.

"I said no. I don't want it talked about."

Well, that was final.

...

Lena was walking up to Stenvar's table at Candlehearth Hall and already heard his well-rehearsed pitch: "If it's a mercenary you want, then the strongest one is right here... Oh hello" - he recognised her from their brief encounter last time. "All on your own this time? Sorry, I forgot your name."

"Wolf" - said Lena. "And yes, I do need some backup - planning to explore Dwelmer ruins on the Eastern border."

"Wolf?" - Stenvar swallowed. "So that white-haired fellow last time..."

"Is my brother" - finished Lena. "But he's not here today. Coming?"

"Wouldn't miss it for the world!" - Stenvar was on his feet.

"Your fee" - Lena handed him a purse.

"No, I couldn't..."

"Yes, you can. Or shall I just drop it off with the innkeep here?"

"Well, that's a bit excessive... I do owe her money, but not that much..." - Stenvar stashed away the purse. "Let's go."

"Hello Stenvar" - Hauk stepped out from behind a column. "Keeping well, I trust?"

"Optio..." - Stenvar did keep his voice down this time. He looked at Lena and Hauk and back at Lena again. "So why do you need me?"

"We had a hard time with Centurions in the last ruin" - Hauk offered. "And we thought it would be fun to meet up. And please just call me Hauk."

"If I knew you'd be there, I would have never taken the money!" - Stenvar exclaimed with indignation, reaching for the purse.

"Which is why Lena went to see you alone" - Hauk stopped his hand. "Keep it, you will be earning every bit of it, I promise."

...

Mzulft was a disappointment - it was locked.

"Blasted magical locks!" - Lena cursed putting away Nocturnal's skeleton key. "We'll have to see if Farengar in Whiterun has something to open such things. But until then we can't get in!"

The Stony Creek cave nearby provided a welcome opportunity to blow off some steam. The bandits were clever - they used runes and traps in the narrow passages, and Lena got knocked out a couple of times. But then Stenvar and Hauk coming behind her caused some surprise...

"Oh, this is one nice bow!" - said Lena picking up a bow from the chief. "Wait, this looks familiar... Look Hauk - it has a randomised enchantment! 'The Edge of Ruin' it's called... It was Syl's. I wonder what it is doing here?"

"Wasn't it yours at some point? I remember you talking about it" - asked Hauk examining the bow.

"Yes, it was... Or one just like it" - mused Lena. "A lot of things went missing while I was travelling between here, Shivering Isles and the Northern Realms..."

"Shivering Isles and the Northern Realms?" - Stenvar whistled. "And I haven't even been to Morrowind!"

"You stick with us, and soon you'll wish you never left Candlehearth Hall" - laughed Hauk.

Leaving the cave and following a dirt road South and into the mountains, they found a camp in front of a wooden door. A mage picked a fight.

"Now why is it never possible to talk to them calmly?" - asked Hauk looking around. "I do hope I just knocked him out rather than killed - he was just a novice!"

"He was told to guard the place" - said Lena. "His self-importance overruled his thinking. Let's go in."

Ansilvund looked like a mine, but turned out to be an excavation site of a Nordic crypt. They were greeted by draugr and more mages.

"This is strange" - said Lena looking at draugr wrapped in linen stacked along the walls. "Necromancy?"

"Looks like it" - agreed Hauk.

Stenvar sighed. "I prefer to fight bandits. At least when I kill them, they don't get up!"

...

It was snowing lightly when they came out. Ansilvund was the crypt of Holgeir and Fjori, now being defiled by Lu'ah al-Skaven in a misguided revenge after her husband fell in the Great War. A woman in grief using the grief of Holgeir to... what, exactly? There is no logic in grief.

They sat at the camp by the entrance, they needed a break. They didn't speak.


Lena couldn't help but think of that dagger through Hauk's heart and her own venture into the Fade after him. Jowan had given a piece of his soul to let her do that... She would never forget it, or the grief she had felt seeing Hauk dead on the ground.

She put her head on Hauk's shoulder, he pulled her close. She was silently crying. Hauk stroked her hair, letting the tears run.

Stenvar looked up from the fire, raised his eyebrows in a question. "I'll tell you later" - Hauk mouthed to him. For now they'd just sit there, by the crypt of Holgeir and Fjori, holding each other close.

5-6 Rain's Hand, 4E202 - Tolvald's Cave - Kagrenzel

It was getting late, so they decided to spend the night at Ansilvund making use of the campfire and bedrolls inside. Lena turned in early, but Hauk and Stenvar sat by the fire for a while.

Stenvar was waiting for Hauk to tell him why Lena had been crying, but he didn't want to ask. When they were sure that she was asleep, Hauk passed Stenvar a bottle of mead, moved closer and started to talk quietly.

"It was just last week. Some bandit sneaked up on me and put a dagger through my heart."

Stenvar froze.

"I died. She went after me."

Hauk took a sip from his drink, staring in front of him.

"To Sovngarde?" - Stenvar whispered.

"To the Fade - the place you have to cross to get to Sovngarde. I stood there in front of the gates, but they wouldn't let me in - said someone was searching for me. They'd let me in when that person stopped searching."

They sat there in silence - it wasn't a story you heard every day.

"Which is why we came here for a bit of diversion" - continued Hauk. "Some diversion this crypt proved to be! But may be it's for the best. We'll try to find a Dwemer ruin tomorrow."

"Her grief was so intense" - said Stenvar looking at Lena sleeping. "But she's so young! Just early twenties by the looks of her..."

"Yeah, she looks early twenties... but she went through the Oblivion Crisis."

"Two centuries ago?" - Stenvar was taken aback.

"Yes, she was in her early twenties then" - Hauk confirmed. "But she isn't as old as that. Those other realms she spent time in - time passes differently there. She has probably lived around 50 years in all."

They sat drinking mead in silence for a while.

"You've got to keep her close, Da" - Stenvar said quietly.

"Yeah..." - Hauk was lost in thought. Then - something Stenvar had said jerked him out of it: "Da?"

"Oh, I figured it out a long time ago" - Stenvar smiled. "You must be."

"It's not certain. It could be your Ma's husband."

"That worthless git? No, I'd rather it be you."

"I wasn't around enough. Not what a father should be" - Hauk looked at Stenvar with unease. "I loved your mother though."

"It was the War - you were in the Legion. You were around more than many others. And you kept coming back until she died..."

"At which point I abandoned you!" - Hauk sounded guilty. "Something a father should have never done."

"I was almost twenty already! You didn't need to look after me any more!" - Stenvar protested.

"Yeah, I suppose you grew up by then..." - Hauk passed Stenvar more mead. "But still..."

"I'm glad you are back" - said Stenvar. "Ma was happy around you. We both were."

They sat by the fire deep into the night.


"Oh, something smells good!" - Hauk woke up to the aroma of toasted sweetrolls. Lena was cutting up fruit for breakfast. Stenvar woke up too.

"Did you two drink all the mead you could find here last night?" - she asked pointing at a pile of empty bottles.

"We might have done" - Hauk grinned.

"Where's my armour?" - Stenvar looked bewildered.

"Oh - here" - Lena tossed it to him. "I found some pelts, thought you could use a bit of extra padding, seeing how you kept complaining of cold yesterday..."

"Oh" - Stenvar turned bright red. "Thanks."

"It's like I said..." - Hauk laughed, but Stenvar glared at him and Hauk didn't continue.

...

"There's supposed to be a Dwemer ruin here to the East" - Lena was pouring over a map. "Kagrenzel. And no, I am not holding the map upside down."

"We must have taken a wrong path up the mountain" - said Hauk soothingly. "But here is a cave - you never know, it could be fun."

Tolvad's Cave was not a cave but a cave system. It was large, complicated and filled with falmer. Some Dwemer pipework was visible too, but whatever stood here once, had long collapsed. The caves also housed several ghosts of unfortunate Dunmer fleeing the eruption of the Red Mountain some two centuries ago.

"I suppose it is not surprising to find them here, so close to Morrowind. And they almost made it!" - said Lena with regret. "But the falmer got them..."

"The falmer nearly got us as well" - Hauk reminded her. "How many did we fight at once in that chamber with the waterfall? A dozen? More?"

"Definitely more if you count the chaurusses too" - Stenvar joined in. "This is a dangerous place."

It was nearly 6 p.m. when they came out, not sure what to do.

"Well, it's getting too cold to go searching for that other ruin" - said Hauk. "Let's return to Ansilvund for the night and try another path tomorrow."

They retraced their steps, and just as they were ready to dismount, Lena spurred Roach on and was gone up the mountain.

"Hey, don't get too far ahead!" - Stenvar shouted spurring on his own horse. Lena had found another path.

Indeed, that was the right path to Kagrenzel, and they soon saw Dwemer steps and stonework. They entered.

"Is that all?" - said Lena, disappointed. "Just the one chamber?"

They stood in a chamber with a high ceiling supported by several columns. In the centre there was a pedestal with a glowing orb over it and a couple of fresh corpses underneath.

"That orb looks like trouble" - said Hauk.

"Exactly!" - exclaimed Lena excitedly and grabbed it.

...

Lena came to lying on the ground feeling thoroughly wet and cold. Someone was removing her armour. She decided not to look.

"How are we going to get it to dry in here?" - someone said. The voice sounded familiar.

"We'll have to make a fire" - another familiar voice answered. "Or go without - we've got some clothes in the pack."

"She's still out though. And cold. Why is she not warming up? I mean, I hate cold but I warmed up already!"

"She's... well... she's got a condition."

Someone was rubbing Lena's body with oil - lavender? - as she slowly noticed the feeling returning to her fingers. The fog started to clear, too. She opened her eyes.

"Hauk!" - she tried to say, but no sound came out of her mouth.

"She's waking up!" - the other voice said. Stenvar.

"Oh good" - Hauk put away the oil. "Drink this." He brought a goblet to her lips, helping her to sit up.

It smelled... familiar. Lena drank.

Colour returned to her cheeks almost immediately. She sat up on her own, now holding the goblet, still drinking. The fog lifted.

"More?" - Hauk rolled up his sleeve, removing the clamp from his vein.

Yes, she needed more. Stenvar went pale.

...

"She was a vampire once" - Hauk was explaining it to Stenvar while Lena was sleeping off the lavander oil. "She took the cure, and she doesn't bite necks any more, don't worry. But she doesn't regenerate as well as she should, and sometimes she needs blood to recover. The cure isn't perfect."

Stenvar was still looking shocked.

"I fought some vampires before" - he shuddered. "They were terrifying. I didn't know it could be cured."

"It's hard to obtain - practically impossible for most, and as you can see, the side effects are... rather deadly."

They were sitting on an edge of a deep pool of water - the pond under a waterfall. The water was coming directly from above - so high, you couldn't see the source.

When Lena had touched the glowing orb in the Dwemer ruin, some mechanism was activated, the floor tilted and they were dropped into this pool right under a pounding stream. The shock of the fall and the ice cold water made Lena black out, and if it wasn't for Hauk and Stenvar, she would have drowned. They pulled her out, and while Stenvar was getting out of his own dripping wet armour, Hauk cut his vein and prepared a goblet of blood.

"She'll be back to normal when she wakes up" - said Hauk checking the bandage. "And she'll be angry with me for this - or at least she was last time I offered."

"Mmm... thank you, Hauk, I'm not angry" - Lena was waking up. "But what are we doing here?" She looked around.

"Didn't I tell you that orb was trouble?" - laughed Hauk. "Come on, there must be a path to the surface somewhere."

They followed the stream and eventually came out in the Stony Creek cave, now devoid of bandits after their visit the day before. Still wet and cold, they stood outside.

"Well, what now?" - Lena turned to her companions. "Where do we spend the night?"

"Ansilvund" - they pointed up the mountain.

Ansilvund. Again.

7-8 Rain's Hand, 4E202 - Whiterun - Assassin's End - Irkngthand

"We need to go to Whiterun to see Farengar about opening those magical locks" - said Lena in the morning. "Then we can return here again and try entering Mzulft." [1]

"That's assuming Farengar actually has something suitable" - noted Hauk. "But if anyone does, that'll be him."

They set off West from Ansilvund riding over the geisers. Everything was quiet until Hauk and Stenvar got into a fight with a couple of giants at the Broken Limb camp.

"What?!" - Lena couldn't believe her eyes. "Are you two that bored?!"

"Always wanted to fight a giant!" - shouted Stenvar. "We can take them together!"

"What did they ever do to you?" - Lena shouted back, but no, Stenvar wasn't listening. "Surely Hauk should know better!" - she thought, but apparently he was having too much fun.

Thump! Thump! Thump! The giants got angry. Their thundering clubs shuddered the ground - there was no way for Lena to use any kind of targeting - bow or spells. Then... something flew through the air. No, not something - someone. Hauk got sent flying, landing in a pool, knocked out.

"He'll need a hand getting up" - figured Lena rushing to him.

"Ooh thanks" - he said. "Those giants aren't joking."

Next it was Stenvar flying through the air, landing on rocks and needing a healing hand. Lena gave up targeting giants and just kept running between Hauk and Stenvar trying to keep them alive.

Eventually, the giants were defeated.

"Well, at least let's get their cheese" - said Lena checking the mammoth cheese vats. "And let's find a road and just ride to Whiterun, ok?"

"Only if you promise not to touch any strange orbs" - laughed Hauk. He had a point.

...

Farengar had what they wanted - a ring of unlocking. Mzulft would be open to them now.

"Can you two hang back here for a few hours?" - Lena got up from a table at the Drunken Huntsman. "I need to check on something."

"I thought we said no business this time!" - Hauk protested.

"It won't take long, I promise!"

Lena was out the door. Some things never change.

There was a rumour of an old Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary East of Whiterun [2], and she had to investigate. She found it - and was able to enter, her enchantment from Cyrodiil obviously worked. A Dark Guardian recognised her - this one was a ghost.

"Sister" - one of the assassins greeted her with a nod.

"How does he know?" - she wondered. "And who are they?"

"We are not really here" - an assassin in Daedric armour addressed her, seeing her confusion. "We are the memories of the assassins that were here long ago, when the Dark Brotherhood still had branches in Skyrim. You were able to find the cave, and then to enter the Sanctuary, so you are a Black Hand. We greet you." He bowed.

"But I wasn't able to enter the Sanctuary in Dawnstar" - Lena remembered that failed attempt.

"The Dawnstar Sanctuary had been corrupted" - an assassin in mage robes joined in. "As was the one near Falkreath, as you have undoubtedly noticed. But this one is better protected, so the enchantment still holds. The Dawnstar Sanctuary has been sealed against misuse."

Lena walked around the Sanctuary. A dormitory, a store room, an armoury - everything you'd need, without the fuss.

"Are you bound to this place forever?" - she asked the assassin in Daedric armour.

"Not forever" - he replied, looking up. "We shall depart, now that you are here - even if you don't stay. You've found this place, and our task is complete."

"Thank you" - Lena murmured. This was certainly an interesting turn of events.

...

"Right, see - I'm back, and it didn't take long" - Lena walked into the Drunken Huntsman. Hauk was talking to a dremora, with Stenvar eyeing them suspiciously from a far corner.

"At least with that dremora hanging around here, Nazeem has not dared to come in!" - Jenassa was saying to Stenvar. "He seems harmless. Pays for his board, too!"

"That's not just any dremora" - said Lena in passing. "Sanguine!" - she ran up to him. "What are you doing here?"

"Drinking mead, thank you very much!" - Sanguine laughed. "And catching up on gossip" - he nodded at Hauk. "I hear you've been getting yourself into trouble again?"

"I never!" - Lena protested. "What have you been telling him?" - she turned to Hauk.

"Oh, you know, of daggers and strange orbs" - he winked. "Here - have some mead."

But Lena didn't want to stay too long.

"Come on - time to go" - she urged Hauk.

"Go where?" - he looked at her in disbelief. "The sun has practically set already."

"Enough time to make it to the Nightgate Inn before midnight" - Lena insisted. "I want to try Irkngthand tomorrow, now that we can unlock that door."

"I told you she's recovered" - Hauk turned to Sanguine. "Don't worry."

...

They rode in silence for a while, Lena going steadily North. Stenvar levelled his horse with Hauk's.

"She is friends with a Daedric Prince?"

"Yep."

"To the point that he's looking in on her?"

"Yep."

"What else are you not telling me?"

"Oh, there's plenty. You'll find out in time" - Hauk laughed.


"Well, here's Irkngthand" - said Hauk as they approached the ruin. "The entrance is on the top floor, and there's no way to get to it... unless you want to drop in from above?"

"Exactly" - Lena smiled.

Stenvar looked perplexed.

Dropping in from above meant climbing the mountain first. They spotted a path going up and took it.

"No, not again!" - Lena watched in disbelief. "Did you decide to kill all giants in Skyrim?"

But obviously they had to have the cheese, and so... Hrmnph. With the Tumble Arch Pass cleared, they continued their ascend.

"This doesn't look good" - said Hauk. "A Word Wall with a massive sarcophagus next to it. I bet it's a Dragon Priest."

"A what?!" - Stenvar started asking when he got hit by a firebolt that almost toppled him over. "Oh I see!"

The fight was intense at first, but then Krosis levitated a bit too far from the edge and... fell off. You wouldn't normally expect an ultra powerful Dragon Priest to commit such a silly error, but there he was, stuck between the rocks, not able to rise or to shoot spells upwards. Ha!

Lena summoned a fire atronach that graciously floated level with Knosis tickling the Priest with its own fire spells, all the while rather enjoying the firebolts. That, and Lena's and Hauk's ice spikes and thunderbolts eventually got him killed. Incredible.

Just below Shearpoint was a small plateau from which one could jump onto the roof of Irkngthand, and then hopefully onto the ledge with the door.

"I'll go" - said Lena. "Follow if you can, but don't worry if you can't. Wait for me down in the camp." And she was off before anyone could object.

...

Lena came out after 1 a.m.

"Finally!" - Hauk looked worried. "What sort of time do you call this?"

"The time to explore the ruin while avoiding the fighting" - Lena smiled. "For the most part." She dangled a sack with 21 falmer ears. "There was far more where this came from, and I didn't collect them all either."

"Anything else?" - Hauk looked suspicious.

"Yes, I ran into Brinjolf in there." [3]

"Oh" - Hauk's eyes darkened. "What did he want?"

"Well, he wasn't there for me. It seems I walked into something - he was evasive. I lost him somewhere among the falmer slave pens, I think" - she winked.

"So that's why it was locked" - Hauk concluded. "Damned Thieves Guild."

"So can we go back to the inn now?" - Stenvar yawned. "It's too cold out here."

The Nightgate Inn beckoned.

"Let's hope we can share in the fun in Mzulft" - said Hauk getting into the saddle. "That's another ruin with a magic lock."

"We'll find out tomorrow!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[1] PS4 mod "Ring of Unlocking".

[2] PS4 mod "Dark Brotherhood in Whiterun" with my own story.

[3] While Lena was exploring, a Thieves Guild quest "Blindsighted" got triggered. She tried to follow it through, but it glitched in the end, so she left the way she came. Brinjolf might be permanently stuck there now, so beware.

9-10 Rain's Hand, 4E202 - Mzulft

They reached Mzulft before lunch and unlocked the door. All seemed quiet. Someone had disposed of the automatons already. Soon they came upon the first body: a mage, possibly from Cyrodiil.

"Mages Guild?" - Lena looked at Hauk. "No, these are not our robes. The Synod - a new group. They must have mounted an expedition, then things seem to have gone very wrong."

"Those machines back there were pretty broken" - noted Stenvar. "So what killed the mage?"

"I give you two guesses" - said Lena, fingering the sack with falmer ears.

"Oh."

"And let's not forget their insectoid friends!" - reminded Hauk. "There's one right there!"

"Well, you wanted to fight something that would bleed. Green blood ok for you?" - teased Lena.

Following the first flying chaurus, they came to a chamber where the mages had set up camp. Alas, all they found were more corpses. Falmer and chaurusses were lurking in the rocky passage ahead.

"Falmer are blind" - Lena turned to her companions. "So let's take advantage of it. Be very quiet and you can easily sneak up to them."

She cast a muffle spell and crouched, Hauk did the same. Stenvar shook his head and crouched. Lena went ahead, signalling them to wait. One, two, three falmer hit with poison arrows, not dead, but no longer at full strength, and they still couldn't hear her. She summoned a dremora and ran back.

The battle was sharp and short, with the dremora taking the heat with archery support from behind.

"There can be no other end" - the Churl returned looking pleased with himself.

"Thank you, my friend" - Lena said, patting him on the arm. He smiled but didn't answer.

"You talk to him?" - Hauk asked when the dremora was banished. "I thought they despised mortals."

"They do" - Lena confirmed. "But it doesn't hurt being polite. Besides, it is usually the same one that keeps turning up."

"I never paid attention to the ones I summoned" - admitted Hauk.

"Well, may be that's why they despise mortals" - smiled Lena.

...

It was nearly midnight but they were still wondering through Mzulft. They were getting tired and hungry.

"We should make camp or find a quiet corner to rest" - said Hauk. "This ruin goes on and on."

"What - sleep here? Among these machines?" - Stenvar didn't sound enthusiastic.

"Not among the machines" - Hauk corrected him. "I did say find a quiet corner. The Dwemer had living quaters here too."

They entered what looked like a town square with doors leading in four directions. All was quiet, someone killed the falmer and destroyed the automatons.

"The Synod mages" - Lena pointed at another dead mage. "They've put up a good fight!"

In one of the corridors between two locked doors stood a Synod mage over a falmer body. The first living Synod mage.

"Hello" - Lena greeted him. "I am so sorry for your friends. Come with us - you'll be safe now."

But he just stared at her and shook his head.

"There's an Imperial camp nearby" - said Hauk. "We'll send some Legionnaires to get you out. Stay here."

The mage looked up at the mention of Legionnaires and nodded.

"Let's go" - Hauk beckoned them on. "He's in shock."

They walked away. They would explore the door behind that mage later, first they needed rest. One of the other doors from the central square led to what looked like living quarters. There was a table there and a bed - all made of stone. They decided to spend the night in that chamber.


Sleeping on a stone bed was as uncomfortable as sleeping on the floor, so they didn't argue about places. Still, it was safe and they were tired. In the morning they went to investigate the last remaining corridor behind the Synod mage.

The mage wasn't there - he seemed to have found a quiet corner for himself too. They unlocked the door - and found another mage, and a camp. Behind it was a huge Dwemer sphere - a mechanism of some sort.

"This must be what the mages came to study" - said Lena. "Impressive!"

The second mage didn't want to leave either, so they let him be. There was another corridor branching off - and another locked door.

"Blessed be Farengar and his curiosity" - muttered Lena putting on the Ring of Unlocking again.

The lock clicked. The door led outside.

"What?!" - Stenvar couldn't believe it. "We could have been out already last night! I would have preferred to sleep with the bears rather than among those machines!"

"We didn't know where that corridor led" - Hauk tried to be reasonable. "It could have very well been another falmer infested passage, and we were tired and needed rest. Sometimes you just have to know when to stop."

Stenvar had to reluctantly agree than another long fight with the falmer could have turned out badly for them at that point.

They climbed down the cliff and found their horses waiting where they had left them - they were directly above the entrance.

"Well, where to next?" - asked Hauk looking around. "We've cleared this area, I think."

"The Imperial camp" - said Lena pointing up the mountain. "We promised those mages to send help. Then we'll see."

...

"And you are sure those ruins are not haunted?" - the soldiers that the Legate had sent to the ruins wanted confirmation.

"I guarantee you - they are not. And we and the mages before us have cleared out all of the falmer and chaurusses too" - Hauk sounded reassuring. "Most of the mages died doing it, sadly."

"When Optio tells you it's safe - it's safe!" - said the Legate glaring at them. "And you've got your swords, don't you? Off you go now, bring those mages here if they want to come, but don't insist if they don't."

"I don't blame them" - said Stenvar. "It's nothing like fighting bandits."

They sat by the fire recounting to the others what was inside Mzulft. Somehow fighting Stormcloaks paled in comparison.

...

"Should we be returning to Cyrodiil?" - asked Hauk looking at Lena. "See how Jowan is getting on with Volanaro?"

"Yes, I think it's time" - she looked pensive. "I've got a job to do in Skingrad, too... and another one also in Skingrad - that one's for Mages Guild. Something that the Count asked specifically for me!"

"Vampires - it must be" - concluded Hauk. "He knows you can be trusted."

"Well, we can go together, and even bring Jowan - it isn't as secret as that." Lena turned to Stenvar: "I guess we part ways then. Take care of yourself, Stenvar."

"Come and find me again next time you're around" - he got up. "I'll be getting bored at the Candlehearth Hall."

Lena and Hauk got up too, headed back to Helgen and over the border to Cyrodiil.

Very much agree with this decision, and so does my one character who was going through Dark Brotherhood years ago (way back in 2011).



This amused me. She's got a meeting with the Speaker about something so serious, and she's eating grapes with cheese.

Interesting how Hauk and Hadvar already know each other. I am up to Sun's Dawn 20 by now.

12-16 Rain's Hand, 4E202 - Skingrad vampires

Lena and Hauk arrived in Bruma on the 12th, almost two weeks after they left.

"Good holiday?" - Jowan greeted them. He's been staying at the Mages Guild - Volanaro managed to convince Jeanne that it was a charitable thing to do to allow Lena's friend to stay with them, considering that Lena was a Warlock and had the ear of the Arch Mage.

"Yes, I think it was a good holiday, all things considered" - Lena decided. "I have things to do in Skingrad, so why don't we take a coach to there, and I'll fill you in on the way."


"What happened to the unicorn?" - asked Hauk at breakfast the following morning. They were staying at Lena's house in Skingrad where she used to have a stuffed unicorn in the bedroom. The unicorn was now gone, replaced by an alchemy lab behind a partition.

"Sent it to Skyrim" - she smiled. "Geralt was talking about getting a house of his own, so he'll need it. I doubt Yennefer will be able to bring hers from the Northern Realms."

That was that. She didn't take any further questions.

...

"Well, what do you think we should do?" - Lena turned to Hauk after they spoke to the Count of Skingrad. "Talk to the vampire hunters or go see the vampires for ourselves first?"

"I don't think we need to see the vampires" - said Hauk. "The Count wants them gone, it's understandable."

"Ok, hunters then. Let's ask around town."

...

"We're here to protect!" - said Eridor and continued talking until Lena couldn't take it any more.

"They are in the Bloodcrust Cavern!" - Lena had enough of it. "Go get them." Then turning to Hauk and Jowan, she added: "I have a headache! Let's go to the Two Sisters Lodge for a drink."

The Lodge teamed with vampire hunters.

"Well, there are no vampires here!" - Mog gra-Mogakh told them. "So stop sneaking around and start buying drinks!"

Which they did. Were they ever going to hunt the vampires?


"Well, they are not in a hurry" - said Lena in the evening. "I've got another job to do, and it may take a few days, I just don't know. Why don't you two keep an eye on the hunters while I'm gone? I'll leave in the morning."

"Is that far away?" - asked Jowan.

"No, it's right here in Skingrad. A closed party of some sort" - Lena explained. "And it is likely that everyone will have their own objectives there. I don't really know what to expect."

"Well, be careful" - said Hauk. "We'll keep an eye on the hunters."


Lena was gone for a day and a half, returning in the evening. She looked tired but satisfied.

"Unbelievable!" - she let herself drop into a seat with a goblet of wine. "The small talk nearly killed me!"

"I'm glad it didn't" - laughed Hauk. "But I know what you mean."

"Any news about the hunters?"

"Not as such, but they seem to have disappeared."

"Oh?"

"Mog gra-Mogakh complained that they scampered without paying, and that now she'll have to clean out their rooms as they left their 'filthy smelly stuff' behind" - explained Hauk. "I think they might be dead."

"We'll need to go check the cavern tomorrow, in case any of the vampires survived" - Lena was looking thoughtful. "I wonder what made them come so close to the city, and not any city, but Skingrad specifically. Were they hoping that the Count would welcome them with open arms?"

"Probably not, but there might be a reason. We should ask" - agreed Hauk.

"Aren't they just going to try to kill us on sight?" - Jowan couldn't quite imagine what this conversation would look like.

"That's what we need to find out" - answered Lena, looking straight at him. "When I was a vampire, I didn't attack people on sight. Many vampires don't stop being people. Some however do turn into wild predators attacking everyone. We need to find out what these ones are like."

"Tomorrow is going to be interesting" - concluded Jowan.


"Was that a hunter?"

They were standing over a corpse near the entrance of the Bloodcrust Cavern.

"Hard to say" - Hauk turned him over. A pale face stared at them. "He is not wearing armour - just clothes - but he's got a sword and a shield. Yes, probably a hunter - sucked dry."

They entered the cave. Another corpse - Eridor. No bite marks.

"Hello!!!" - Lena shouted into the cave passage. "Can we talk?"

Footsteps.

"You dare come in here?!" - a vampire appeared, claymore at the ready.

"Yes, I do" - said Lena calmly. "Not afraid to get infected and you won't like my blood. I want to speak to the head of this coven."

"And they?" - the vampire glared at Hauk and Jowan.

"They will kill you and spill your blood unless you cooperate. Now."

The vampire hesitated but then sheathed his weapon and asked them to follow. The matriarch was waiting in the next chamber, having listened to the exchange unseen.

"You wanted to speak with me" - she turned to Lena. "Speak."

"What is it you seek so close to Skingrad?" - asked Lena.

"We seek the cure - the Count has it" - the matriarch bared her fangs. "We shall terrorise the populace until we get it."

"Have you asked the Count for it?"

"No, but isn't it obvious? He is just sitting on it!"

"Well..." - Lena looked into the faces of the vampires at the back of the room. "You do realise that it has side effects?"

The matriarch stepped towards Lena and bit her neck. Lena didn't look worried - and Hauk held back Jowan who wanted to attack. The bite was but a scratch, a drop of blood appeared, the matriarch tasted it.

"Yes, you would know" - she said with satisfaction. "Come - we need to talk."

...

"As simple as that" - Lena looked at Janus Hassildor with urgency. "Leave them be, and you will never need to worry about vampires in Skingrad because these ones will defend their turf. And there will be no attacks on your people - they'll be keeping captives."

"Oh?" - Count Hassildor wasn't convinced yet. "Captives? Any of my citizens?" - he looked angry.

"No, just a pair of vampire hunters" - Lena smiled. "They weren't up to the job, it seems."

Count Hassildor smiled.

"Very well" - he looked at Lena intently. "But how did you convince them to forgo the search for the cure?"

"I told them that I still had to drink blood - and Hauk showed where he cut his vein for me... when I was close to death."

"You spoke to Vicente then" - the Count relaxed.

"It was a huge shock to learn that I still needed blood... but I've accepted it now. Some of the vampires in that coven may prefer suicide instead."

Well, they are having dinner. Just because it's a business dinner, there is no reason to ignore grapes and cheese. Besides, these two have a history together, they are not exactly strangers.



Well, they are obviously both in the Legion. And I always felt that there was far more to Hadvar than just being an ordinary soldier. He's not saying much, so that can only mean... yep, there's a lot more to him than what meets the eye!

16-17 Rain's Hand, 4E202 - Obligations - Fenris Bero

"Well, that was interesting" - Lena looked at Hauk when they were outside Castle Skingrad. "So Mannimarco has returned. Traven will want to know that - but should we hurry back?"

"I wouldn't hurry" - Hauk said slowly. "If Traven hasn't figured it out for himself yet, he isn't much of an Arch Mage."

Lena nodded. The information was important, of course, but she felt that the Count had simply used it to ask Lena's help with the vampire hunters. She would have given her help regardless though.

"Well, if we are not going to worry about Traven for now" - she continued, lost in thought. "Then there are a few obligations I need to follow up on. Namely, trouble has been brewing in the Shivering Isles with the Saints and Seducers quarrelling again, and also I need to check up on the Leyawiin Sanctuary - I had asked Borba to fix it up."

"Then I suggest Leyawiin first" - Hauk looked at her intently. "This seems important somehow. Surely it can't be just about the furniture?"

"It isn't..." - Lena blushed. "There's someone there. A slave."

"What?!" - Hauk and Jowan looked indignant. "You..?!"

"I didn't!" - Lena protested. "I didn't buy a slave! Or at least I didn't know I was buying a slave! I was buying the original furnishings left behind by my great-uncle, and suddenly there was a slave there as well."

"What does the trader have to say about that?" - Hauk looked stern.

"He... well... Let's just say he was a swindler and a slave trader, so I had to have Borba change the furnishings, but I can't just abandon that slave. Especially since he's a vampire."

"Riiiight..." - Hauk whistled. "That explains your sudden warmth towards the vampires in the Bloodcrust Cavern. So what do you intend to do?"

"I wish I knew" - Lena looked uncertain. "There's also a captive there - for the vampire to feed on. I tried to wake him up, but he seems to have been infected with Narcolepsy, so there's nothing I can do for him. And the vampire needs to feed. I want to make this slave into a free person again."

"That might not be so easy" - remarked Jowan. "In Tevinter - a neighbouring kingdom of where I'm from - slavery is so common, that many slaves have accepted it and don't even want to be free. And that's where Magisters kill and bleed their slaves for blood magic rituals - and the slaves... they just think it's normal! People get used to all sorts of things..."

"Then we should go to Leyawiin and check on this slave" - concluded Hauk. "What's his name?"

"Fenris Bero."

"What?! And you kept that for last?!" - Hauk laughed. Jowan looked at them with a blank face. "I'll tell you later" - Hauk promised. A lesson in the history of Morrowind was on the cards.


They took a coach to Leyawiin, arriving within a day. The Sanctuary was just a short walk from the city.

"Mistress!" - Fenris Bero kneeled before Lena as they entered the central hall. "You have returned!"

"As I said I would" - Lena replied. "Is there any food in the stores?"

"Yes, the Orcs filled it up" - Fenris pointed at the storage. "I haven't touched anything."

"Right..." - Lena looked at Hauk and Jowan. "Can you two take care of dinner while I talk to Fenris?"

She took him into the study and closed the door.

"Please don't kneel, you are not my slave."

"But Mistress!" - Fenris was confused but he remained standing. Lena sat down.

"Tell me about your life with Rowley."

"Well..." - Fenris seemed hesitant. "He... started by sending us out for assassinations, as he said, but he always insisted we bring back loot, and that's what got the others killed. I was lucky, I guess. Then, when I was the only one left, he kept me in his house... I tended to his garden and made his poisons for sale, and he... kept me chained most of the time... He'd come for satisfaction often enough, and if I performed well, he'd give me blood... Just enough to survive."

Fenris dropped to his knees, but Lena didn't insist he'd get up. His story echoed what she'd heard before.

"Then, when I was no longer good enough, he'd beat me, keep me hungry, not give me any water or food at all, and no blood... Then once I was weak and beaten, he'd come for satisfaction again... But in the last few years I was never good enough for him... He used to have other slaves, but they seemed to have gone... or died... Then suddenly he brought me here and said that I had a new master now - a Mistress - and good riddance. You bought me, and I am sorry I am probably no use or satisfaction to you either..."

Lena listened wondering more and more what to do with him.

"Fenris" - she started. He looked up. "Rowley is dead - I killed him." Fenris froze. "And you are not a slave here. Do you wish to leave?"

"You are sending me away, Mistress?" Tears ran down Fenris' face and he was shaking all over. "I... I have no where to go."

Lena had said the wrong thing. She sat down on the floor next to Fenris and put her arm around his shoulders.

"I am not sending you away" - she wiped away his tears not unlike Lucien had wiped away hers some weeks back. "I killed Rowley Eardwulf because he was a traitor - to my great-uncle, to the Dark Brotherhood, to all of you new recruits, and certainly to you. He did not deserve to live."

"And he was with the Crimson Scars, and you are with the Dark Brotherhood. I am ready to die by your hand, Mistress!" - he looked resolved.

"He was with the Dark Brotherhood before he was with the Crimson Scars, and that is why he had to die" - Lena replied. "But you are a different matter. You were not involved, and I absolve you. It is in my power - I am a Silencer."

"And who is your Speaker?"

"Lucien Lachance."

They were already sitting on the floor, so Fenris could not kneel. Still, he could prostrate himself before Lena, and there he was. Every attempt she made to tell him that his enslavement and suffering were over, seemed to have gone wrong. How do you bring back someone who's been a slave for over 200 years?

She let him lie there for a little while, then she propped herself up on an elbow and started stroking his hair. After a while, Fenris looked up, his grey Dunmer skin having a white undertone, his vampire eyes light pink.

"When was the last time you fed?" - Lena asked.

"I haven't touched the prisoner" - he said. "I hadn't earned it."

Weeks, then. Perhaps months. Now, try not to say the wrong thing again, Lena.

"I shall have work for you" - she said, lifting him up by the shoulders and looking straight into his face. "But I need you at full strength. Feed on the prisoner. Eat the food. My companions and I will stay here tonight and leave tomorrow, but I shall be back in a few weeks. You will need to come with me then. Be ready."

Fenris straightened up.

"Yes, Mistress."

She got up and left the room to join Hauk and Jowan at the table.

"Well? How did it go?" - Hauk asked.

"He's a slave" - Lena answered grimly. "He doesn't know how not to be."

18 Rain's Hand, 4E202 - Bravil - Shivering Isles

"Go on - you need to do it on your own" - Hauk and Jowan were seeing off Lena as she prepared to enter the Shivering Isles. "Sheogorath wanted you to do those tasks for Syl and Thadon, and you don't want me there getting under your feet" - Hauk smiled. "As much as I would love to." He kissed her on a cheek. "Jowan and I will explore Bravil while you're gone - I don't think Jowan appreciates the finer points yet" - he winked.

"Well, all right" - Lena conceded. "But don't let me catch you in that den when I'm back."

"No, we'll keep to the chapel."

Mmm. Whatever. Lena stepped through the portal.

18-21 Rain's Hand, 4E202 - Lady Syl

Lady Syl wanted me to find a conspiracy against her and suggested I enlist the help of her Court Torturer. How could I refuse!

"I like assertive leadership" - said Herdir. Well, we'll get along fine then.

Most people had nothing to say, but they all got a good zapping anyway - leadership needs to be asserted, not merely assumed. Cutter got a triple doze because she asked for it. Literally.

But what do you know - Lady Syl was right this time - there was in fact a conspiracy against her. Some people want her dead. But how complicated! A Black Sacrament is all you need, and someone comes and does the job for you - me. Oh wait, we have no branches in the Shivering Isles.

After a day of fun torturing everyone... err... making enquiries, we got a lead on a secret meeting location, and then I had to sneak around and listen in. I got bored, got stuck at Bernice's chatting with Ushnar and his terror of cats (and Khajiits), then ran around after Bisha to try and get him to leave - and missed the secret meeting. Never mind, there's always tomorrow. Got a nice skinned hound as a reward.

Slow investigations have their merits - provided there's enough wine in stock.

Lady Syl was pleased with the result, and the head of the conspiracy was executed. She's right not to execute everyone involved though - she'd soon run out of citizens.

And here it is - my Ruin's Edge. Not "The Edge of Ruin" that I found in Skyrim. Although the enchantment is similar, the Skyrim bow is a fake - much too heavy and takes way too much charge to work.

On to the next task now: get the chalice for Thadon. It's a tricky one - I'll have to take felldew to enter the cave, and continue taking more felldew to keep fighting the elytra. But in the end there's the chalice - it clears up the built-up addiction. Yeah, I've done it before... But last time I was a vampire, and that addiction didn't do much to me at all. This time it will be different, I can tell...

21-23 Rain's Hand, 4E202 - The chalice

"Come on - take it" - Dylan held Lena tightly around the waist, his low voice hissed as he spoke into her ear. He dropped his mace and held her close to his bare chest. "Now."

Lena was dizzy, the room was spinning in her sight, but she was still resisting.

"No, I can't!"

Dylan unclipped his collar, and his upper armour dropped to the floor. It was hard to refuse a Dark Seducer. His scent was sweet, enticing, irresistible.

"You must" - he hissed, holding her closer still.

The room was spinning faster and faster, Lena was about to faint, to slip away into the white whirlpool ahead... The darkness behind her was rushing in too, swallowing her... Which would devour her first - the velvet darkness or the blinding white light, sharp as her Sufferthorn... Sharp as...

She bit Dylan's neck and drank. She had fangs again.


Lena woke up in a feather bed in what looked like a party room. There was wine, fruit and felldew everywhere, as well as several fresh corpses. Dylan was next to her on the bed.

"Ah, you are awake" - he said, now not trying to speak softly. There was a fresh bite mark on his neck, he looked a little pale, noticeable even on his dark blueish skin. "Thadon tried to get you killed. Ex-vampires cannot have felldew."

"But I'm alive?" - Lena was trying to remember what happened. Thadon had sent her into this cave with elytras, she had to have felldew to enter, then to have more to survive, then...

"Yeah, alive, but only just."

Dylan must have followed her, she vaguely remembered him joining in the fight with the addicts when she reached the chamber where they were feasting - the chamber with the chalice.

"I remember getting the chalice - and your help in battle" - she looked at him, now noticing the bite marks. "Did I..?" - she touched Dylan's neck lightly and a drop of blood oozed from the bite.

"You had to have blood" - he said. "Fresh blood of a living being, not a corpse. Blood not tainted by felldew" - he glanced at the corpses of the addicts. "You would have died - the chalice would have killed you."

"And you--"

"I am not mortal, but it seems to have sufficed" - he looked at her fondly. "I missed you."

...

Lena couldn't go anywhere just yet, she was still dizzy and weak. Dylan collected the fruit around the room and brought it to her, carefully avoiding wine and felldew. Lena ate, biting into the fruit and touching her incisors with her tongue after every bite - they seemed to have returned to normal sized teeth.

"Your fangs have retracted" - Dylan noticed her worry. "You are not a vampire."

"So what am I then - a part-vampire?" Lena didn't like this. Although she had drank blood once since she took the cure, she hadn't bitten any necks - she thought she had lost her fangs. Apparently, not completely.

"You are an ex-vampire. You lost your immortality but not your addiction."

He caressed her face and looked into her eyes.

"Amber. That's good. I'll take you to the Wellspring again. Thadon can wait."

He rolled over onto his back and closed his eyes. Lena was going to say something, but he was already asleep, his long wake over.


"Hello, Thadon" - said Lena approaching the table in the House of Mania. "Here is your Chalice."

"You..." - Thadon stuttered - "how are you..."

"Alive?" - Dylan prompted him, emerging from the shadows. "That was a mean trick you played, Thadon."

"Not any meaner than what she did last time around!" - Thadon retorted glaring at both of them. "You!" - he turned to Dylan - "You were supposed to be dead! Mazken scum!"

Dylan didn't seem to be offended, rather amused.

"Dead? Me? You need a sip from that chalice, Thadon."


"Well now, isn't that fun!" - Sheogorath appeared at the table. "It all turned out splendidly, it seems!"

"My Lord" - Thadon bowed.

"Thadon - tszt - tszt! You knew she was an ex-vampire - I told you!" - Sheogorath wagged his finger in front of Thadon's face. "Good thing she had friends, eh? Or may be bad thing for you, because now she'll go after Syl again. Cutting the heart out and all that nonsense - very bloody."

"But My Lord--" Thadon started, but Sheogorath wasn't listening.

"I see you haven't forgotten us completely" - he turned to Dylan. "I shouldn't allow that sort of thing, you know, rebellion and all that, but since it is all in good fun... I'll let you off. Will she turn into a Mazken now that she drank your blood?" - he looked Lena over. "No, probably not - as pale as ever. More blood! More blood is what she needs, keep trying. I'm sure Thadon can supply the felldew."

"My Lord..." - Thadon started, looking bewildered. "You knew this would happen? That this... scum" - he glared at Dylan - "would rescue her?"

"Of course I knew, I'm the Prince! Knew, know, did I know? May be not! But suspected!" - Sheogorath was piercing Dylan with his gaze. "Mazken scum, you say? Well, she seems to like him! Tastes good - and not just the blood! But there's no accounting for taste, is there?" - he looked at Thadon. "Not the way you carry on with Syl, I shouldn't think!"

Thadon was finally realising that there was no reasoning with Sheogorath - Wide-Eye had been making him signs for a while already. Nothing happened in the Shivering Isles without Prince's knowledge and approval, and if it did, then it didn't last. Thadon should stop embarrassing himself.

"Well done and run along now" - Sheogorath looked at Lena again. "Find something to do. Or it will find you - you never know what it'll be!"

Sheogorath vanished. Thadon was still glaring at Lena and Dylan, clutching the chalice to his chest. It was time to leave.


"Did you have trouble with Sheogorath after I left?" - Lena asked Dylan once they were outside.

"Trouble?"

"Because you left the Mazken order?"

"No... well... it depends what you call trouble" - he looked at her sideways. "I was banished for a while. To Oblivion, you know. He only brought me back when you returned."

"What?!" - Lena was outraged. "I'll have to have words with him. He's to leave you alone."

They entered Crucible.

"How may I serve?" - a Mazken guard greeted them, glaring at Dylan. There was a lot of glaring going around that day.

"Oh, don't mind him" - said Dylan, referring to Sheogorath. "He's not as crazy as he likes to appear. Let's have something to eat."

Sickly Bernice was happy to serve them food and drink, but avoided talking to Dylan. Mazken didn't normally come to her taphouse, certainly not male Mazken, but she dared not contradict the Duchess' Inquisitor - Lena. Not after that Inquisition she'd been subjected to... If it was food and drink they wanted, food and drink they got, she had rooms too, no questions asked. Not like in that other inn in New Sheoth...

23-24 Rain's Hand, 4E202 - Dylan

"Thank you for decorating this house" - Lena and Dylan entered the Wolf House in Crucible. "I wasn't fond of Hirrus' tastes" - she smiled.

"I know" - Dylan smiled back. "I didn't lose my memory just because I've been banished."

...

When Lena had become the sitting Lord Sheogorath, she tried to make some changes to the Palace Guard - she requested that male Seducers should also serve in the Palace. This was an outrageous request - their ranks were much too low for that kind of honour. But she was the Lord - albeit temporary - and her will could not be ignored. Yet only one male Seducer appeared, the others had chosen to please their Mazken superiors instead.

Dylan was not like the other Seducers - he was curious. He wondered what his new duties would be, what kind of services were required of him. Why did she request a male? Surely, that could only be for one thing...

Actually, no. Lena was mistrustful of women, mortal or daedra. She had been betrayed by her "best friends for life" all too many times, she hated rivalry, bigotry, jealousy and small talk - all the vices that she associated with the fair sex. She preferred men, and she had learned to avoid the ones that were only after that one thing.

After some initial misunderstandings, Dylan decided that Lena wanted a bodyguard. He still couldn't see why she'd prefer a weaker male, but figured she must have felt inferior compared to a female Seducer. After all, Lord of the Land or not, Lena was still a mortal - an inferior race in every respect.

Dylan accompanied Lena to every cave and ruin that she delved into. Her people needed her help, be it with fetching the never ending bottles of Aquanostrum, or with rooting out an overgrown nest of elytra or grummites - there was always something to do. With every expedition, with every battle and with every healing session afterwards, Dylan's attitude was slowly changing.

"What happened to you?" - he asked Lena once, suddenly noticing her wrinkled face covered in sores, her stooped posture and her swollen joints. "Your appearance does not reflect your essence."

"I was a vampire, I took the cure, and this is the side effect" - Lena replied.

No, that couldn't be right, he wouldn't stand for it.

"That cure crippled you" - he said with indignation. "How do you cope?"

"Oh, it doesn't hurt" - smiled Lena, running her hand over the swollen knuckles. "And I am used to being shunned."

"I'll take you to the Wellspring tomorrow."

This was the first time that Dylan took the lead in their partnership - he was no longer a bodyguard, he was now Lena's friend. He found his purpose and he would never return to the Mazken order.


They spent the night in the Wolf House. The air was thick with the mix of their scents. It had been too long.

"Dylan" - Lena was devouring a sweetroll for breakfast. "Come with me to Mundus - you'll get lonely here again once I'm gone. I'll be back, I will always come back, but I can't stay here."

"And I'll be here when you come back" - Dylan replied with a smile. "If not always like this night."

Lena looked at him with a question in her eyes. "Why not?"

"Because one day you will choose one man for yourself, and you mustn't choose me. I belong here, I shall wait for you, and I shall always remain your friend." He looked her in the eye, then took her face in his hands. "However, until such time--" he kissed her.

Oh, I remember bits and pieces of Shivering Isles - including Syl and Thadon. How bittersweet about Dylan.

Dylan... he still needs to find his way, too. He tells Lena not to choose him - but when was the last time she listened to reason?

24-25 Rain's Hand, 4E202 - Cylarne

"The Saints and Seducers are quarreling again - the Great Torch is not burning, I'm sure you noticed" - Sheogorath looked at Lena with significance. "So you know what you've got to do!"

Indeed, she knew what to do. Go to Cylarne, have them fight it out, get the flame, bring it back to New Sheoth and relight the Great Torch. Simplicity itself.

"Well, this will take a few days" - Lena turned to Dylan when they were outside. "Last time I had to do a lot of negotiating between them..."

"But you sided with us - that's the important bit" - Dylan reminded her.

"And may be this is why this time I'll side with the Saints" - said Lena.

Dylan followed her quietly for a little while, until they got onto the gallery around the Palace gardens. Then he pulled her into a corner with her back against the wall.

"You do not side with the Saints" - he hissed, trying to keep his voice down. His gaze was intense - he meant it.

"No, I had no intention to" - admitted Lena. "I am sorry for teasing you, Dylan."

He took a step back, releasing her, but didn't say anything. His gaze was still intense.

"There is more fire inside him than I ever knew" - thought Lena watching Dylan sideways. "Much more!" Had she forgotten that he was a daedra?

...

The way to Cylarne was long, and they got side tracked as usual. The night fell but they were only half way - on the coast near the Breakneck Camp. The views were worth it though.


They spent the night at the camp. There wasn't much to eat there, and they nearly cleared their supplies. They would need to pick fruit and mushrooms along the way.
25 Rain's Hand

"Leave that greenmote alone!" - Dylan was trying to prevent Lena from eating it. "You know it's poison, just like felldew."

"But Thadon eats it every day!" - Lena protested. "Along with the rest of his courtiers. It's not poisonous in small amounts."

"Thadon also indulges in felldew, but you can't. Leave it alone."

Perhaps she should listen to the voice of reason for once.

...

They reached Cylarne in the evening. This time Lena decided not to negotiate but to help the Mazken defend the Altar of Despair. Dylan was pleased with that - he didn't look forward negotiating with the Aureals.

The Mazken won, their losses were significant, but nothing like the losses on the Aureal side. Dylan fought bravely, proving them all wrong for excluding males from service.

Then Grakedrig Ulfri sacrificed herself on the Altar of Despair to light the Flame of Agnon.


"This is the greatest honor that can be bestowed upon a Mazken" - said Dylan, looking wistful. "I wish it could be me."

Lena looked at him in horror.

"She will be back, of course" - he smiled. "Reborn at the Wellspring."

Cylarne now belonged to the Mazken, and Lena wanted to look around the other half of it - the Underkeep that used to house the Aureals. It was partly flooded but otherwise seemed inhabited - the urns held the usual healing potion supplies. The walls were decorated with tapestries of Mania and the Aureals.

"This section seems to be permanently occupied by the Aureals - look at the decor" - she turned to Dylan. "The same as the other section seems to be permanently Mazken. This would make sense, given the two Altars and the duality of this land. So why the quarrels?"

"How can it be any other way?" - asked Dylan, looking perplexed. "Sheogorath is the only one to possess both sides, the rest of us are either one or the other, so we fight. Otherwise we would be the same." He took Lena's hand. "You have chosen a side too - you've never requested male Aureals to serve in the Palace."

"It is true" - Lena agreed. "I don't like Saints - they are haughty. But I tend to prefer Bliss... although I love that house in Crucible..." She smiled. "But you should see my houses in Cyrodiil - Mazken tapestries and Mania rugs..."

"And that's why he chose you as his Champion" - said Dylan, kissing her fondly. "Come on, you've got a Great Torch to light."

As they came out of Cylarne, they ran into an Obelisk of Order. You had to put three Hearts of Order into it to shut it down, and Lena had four hearts in her pack, so she figured the job would be finished quickly... Not so. The Obelisk would only shut down once the Priest of Order was dead. Eleven Knights of Order later, Lena and Dylan finally prevailed, having been knocked out multiple times in the process. The Obelisk seized to function.

They continued on. Literally ten steps further ahead they saw another Obelisk... Thirteen knights had to be fought at that one, plus the priest of course. The Greymarch was really on.


It was 5:30 a.m. when they reached Camp Talltrees, finding a Heretic consorting with a Knight of Order. But not for long.

"We should stop here and rest" - said Dylan. "You haven't eaten anything since the morning - and no, greenmote doesn't count."

He was right, of course. They ate the fruit and mushrooms that they had collected along the way. Lena wasn't sure about sleeping with the Flame of Agnon burning on her, but Dylan convinced her not to worry. The way to New Sheoth was still long.

27-29 Rain's Hand, 4E202 - Ebrocca - Cann - The Sanctum of Decadence

"Why did you light the Great Torch for Mania?" - asked Dylan in the morning. "While you gave Cylarne to the Mazken?"

"The quarrel over Cylarne was between the Mazken and the Aureals, but the Torch is for the people of the Isles. I lit it for Dementia last time, so now it was Mania's turn. Besides, I like the dress. Well, either dress, really. You know I can't choose between them - I belong in both halves."

"As a true Lord Sheogorath must do" - he smiled. "So what's next?"

"Sheogorath wants me to become a Duchess of one one of the halves, but like I said - I can't choose. Or rather: I don't want to choose this time" - Lena got out of bed. "Are we out of sweetrolls?"

Greymarch could wait - breakfast was far more important at that point.

"Besides, I have other obligations" - she continued. "Sickly Bernice wants her Aquanostrum, there are Obelisks to shut down, and I still haven't found the Fork of Horripilation for Big Head - he had lost it again. So get up - we've got things to do. I wonder whether they've got sweetrolls in Bliss?"

...

"Ebrocca" - Dylan figured out where Lena was headed when they passed Highcross without stopping. "Why are we here?"

"The skeletons have been bothering people, so we need to go and calm them down a bit" - she smiled.

"I hate fighting the undead" - Dylan cursed under his breath but followed Lena inside.

Ebrocca had buttons everywhere - buttons that either caused the floor under you to open or some spell to be fired at you, none of it beneficial to your health. Lena pressed such a button, fell through the floor, fought some skeletons in an enclosed cell. There was no way out, just another button to press. She pressed it, fell through the floor, had a great skinned hound to fight, found another button... This continued for some time, and she started wondering what was on the lowest level, and hoping it wasn't just an enclosed cell.

Fortunately there was a way out, or at least a way deeper into the ruin, and it wasn't another fall. She went through a door and found Dylan on the other side. He had pressed another button and had a similar journey - it seemed it made no difference which button you pressed, really.

...

"So... Clanfather Malifant, dead again" - Lena stood over the body of an elderly mage whom they have finally killed, for the third time in a row. "Let's hope he'll stay dead for a while now."

"You know he'll rise again" - said Dylan. "And someone will have to come and kill him all over again, three times in a row."

"And I shall be back to do it again, yes" - Lena looked at Dylan with a smile. "The work is never done."

They checked the coffins stacked around the main chamber, removing any weapons - there was no need to arm those skeletons any further.

"Ok, this will stay quiet for a time" - Lena was satisfied. "We can go."

"Provided we find a way out!"

Eventually, they did.


"While we are in the area" - Lena looked around as they woke up the next morning - they were staying at the Frenzied camp. "Cann is nearby - and we ran into some heretics around that place. They might have the Fork of Horripilation - we should go and check."

"Go and do a lot of fighting, you mean" - Dylan sighed. "Ok, but then we need a good breakfast first. Even if there are no sweetrolls."

They had no sweetrolls but they did have fruit and mushrooms that they had collected the day before - Mania was full of sweets. Most of it was nutritious, if also mildly hallucinogenic.


"Twenty-seven hours!" - Dylan was quite indignant. "Twenty-seven hours it took us to go through those ruins, and for what? Still no Fork!"


"Well, we did stop a number of times to eat and rest" - Lena was trying to calm him down.

"Thank Sheogorath for that!" - she wasn't being very successful. "And we're out of everything now, so still have to go picking fruit before we can find a camp and get some rest! And will probably have to fight more heretics for some dirty bedroll!"

"Definitely more fire inside him than I ever suspected" - thought Lena. Dylan was no longer restraining himself - Lena was no longer his Lord of the Land. She was glad of it.

Cann was a very large ruin, designed for entertainment it seemed. It had a large lobby area, an amphitheater, participant rooms, and many open chambers for small performances.


It also had traps, sliding floors, spellcasting statues - the usual. And heretics, at least thirty heretics with angry hunger summons, as well as the actual hungers. It has been a tiresome business. And indeed, they did not find the Fork of Horripilation anywhere.

"I have an idea" - Lena brightened up. "Follow me."

...

"What?! Dunroot Burrow?!" - Dylan couldn't quite believe it. "Look, if you want blood, just ask!"

"No, this is not what I had in mind" - smiled Lena. "What Thadon forgot to mention, is that there is no need to go through the burrow to reach that room with food and beds where they had the chalice. And that's where we're going - no felldew needed."

Dylan brightened up. They went around the big tree, then down the hill, and they stood in front of the ornate wooden door to the Sanctum of Decadence. The hall was empty.

"Finally!" - Dylan sighed a sigh of relief. "There's still plenty of food and wine here. Let's stay a while."

He unclipped his collar, letting his armour drop to the floor. It was time to relax and unwind.

30 Rain's Hand, 4E202 - Sheogorath

"My Prince" - Lena approached Sheogorath's throne. "I must speak with you."

"Oh how good of you to visit!" - Sheogorath smiled. "Let's hear it then!"

"Leave Dylan alone - he said you banished him when I was gone. After you banished me, I should add" - she glared at him. Lena was not afraid of Sheogorath. "Dylan deserves better."

"Says you!" - Sheogorath was amused. "You are not the one who created him though! That was me! And he defied me!"

"Well, technically he didn't" - Lena smiled slyly. "You made me Lord Sheogorath, remember? And I - Lord Sheogorath - ordered male Mazken to serve in the Palace. So it is in fact all the other ones who didn't come, that defied you."

Sheogorath laughed.

"Well said, well said! Did you hear that, Haskill? I chose well!" - he turned to Lena again. "But what would you have me do, otherwise? The boy was lonely, I did him a favour. I brought him back as soon as you returned."

"He must learn to deal with it" - Lena looked at Sheogorath sternly. "Like mortals do. We can't just be tucked away when things turn sour - we have to go through it."

"But he's not mortal, is he?" - it was now Sheogorath who looked stern. "Tame him too much, and he'll fall to pieces when you die. Which you must, one day! Then he will have to spend an eternity grieving."

"Or learn to live with it, like we do" - Lena was not giving up. "Besides, there are ways for mortals not to die."

Sheogorath looked at her, a mischievous smile playing on his lips.

"You are full of surprises! There are ways, she says..." - he looked at Haskill. "What do you think, Haskill? You're an immortal mortal yourself - by my grace. Should we grant her wish?"

"My Lord, I'm sure you don't need my opinion..." - Haskill started in his usual tone, but then changed his mind. "I think you should let him go. If he wants to return, he will."

"Well, well" - Sheogorath whistled. "Even Haskill dares to speak up. Good for you, Haskill! But don't do it again." He turned to Lena. "No, I won't. Not yet. May be later. Come and see me again once you make up your mind - and if you choose him. What is he to do if you choose another? Even I am not that cruel - wrong Prince, ask Clavicus Vile for something like that."

Sheogorath was looking at Lena with those amber cat's eyes of his, quietly smiling. Amber cat's eyes, like those of her brother... Sheogorath wasn't mad at all.


He was right, and Lena was ashamed of herself now. She hadn't thought it through. "'What is he to do if you choose another?'" - Sheogorath's words echoed in her head. "'Tame him too much, and he'll fall to pieces when you die.'" Indeed, she hadn't thought of that. Eternity was not something that mortals were good at comprehending - even those who'd been immortal once.

"Thank you, My Prince" - she bowed. "You are right, of course."

"Run along now" - the Prince said kindly. "Come visit us again - and bring some cheese next time. I've had enough of yarn and lettuce."

20 Sun's Dawn, 4E202 -- I love the reasoning, how Hauk figures out Lena came to Skyrim due to DB affairs. Also that she finds it inconvenient that she just became thane. This is the first time I'm reading Lena gains a house, but doesn't immediately go crazy decorating it.



And THIS is why she's kept him as her most faithful companion so far, right? If the guy is good at gleaning information she'd think was safely within her private thoughts, this is why he's been with her most prominently. It's the sort of thing which grabs one's attention, early in a relationship. To know that somebody is paying attention.

Well also, he knows how to cook, apparently.

Love the part when she makes fun of Lydia. "I am swoooorn to carry your burdens..."

Holy [censored] am I done with Post One??? woo hoo! Sorry it's taken me so long to read, but I hate skimming stuff. If I'm going to get into someone's tale, I'm not going to skim.

She didn't get that house yet. The Jarl granted her the right to buy it, provided she had the coin. The coin to buy and decorate it - quite a considerable sum. She didn't have it, as it happens, and when she viewed Breezehome and all the options, she was distinctly underwhelmed, especially since Lidya would be living there too. Whatever happened to privacy? Surely, her property didn't need protecting inside the city walls? That's what city guard is for... Anyway, Lena even looked at some extension proposals from independent architects. Make a grand house out of it - add a cellar! And you can have your sleeping coffin there too, and a cattle cell with a prisoner... That brought back some memories that Lena would rather not have brought back. Begone, Architect! Before I change my mind...

A very good exchange between Lena and Sheogorath. I find your approach to Daedra Mortal relations very interesting.

As one who has never played through the Shivering Isles MQ, is there options at the end or becoming the mad god a fixed ending?

Thank you! When I was in my early teens, I read quite a few books from European Romanticism period (18-19th century). Many stayed with me to this day, in particular "Melmoth the Wanderer" by Charles Maturin (1820). He raises some of those questions.



No, there are no choices, unfortunately. You become the Lord of the Land, although you are of course not a Daedric Prince - hence Lord Sheogorath but never Prince Sheogorath.

The MQ also ends with you becoming the Lord. There are tasks to do - your people need your help, but it isn't spectacular. Not the sort of thing that Lena got up to... Although some might say she only dreamt it.

30 Rain's Hand - 3 Second Seed, 4E202 - Aquanostrum - Rotten Den - Obelisks

By the time they got to the Knotty Bramble and fought off the sentries, it was nearly 10 p.m.

"Knotty Bramble is a large cave system and the grummites in there guard their hatchlings well" - said Lena turning to Dylan. "Let's not go in just now. Passwall is not far, we can spend the night at the inn there - and have a decent meal. Then return here tomorrow."

Dylan didn't argue - it was a brilliant idea, as far as he was concerned. He had enough of fruit and mushrooms.


"Do you have to stop at every root stalk, withering moon and watcher's eye that we come across?" - Dylan was getting impatient as Lena kept stopping to take cuttings from the plants along the way.

"Yes, I do" - confirmed Lena, getting up. "We need more poisons - the grummites are getting stronger further in. I haven't got enough today, have to keep them for the last, so want to be better prepared for the next time. Unless you enjoy getting knocked out all the time of course" - she winked.

No, Dylan didn't enjoy getting knocked out.

"Well, all right then" - he conceded. "But if that's the case, perhaps we should just go collecting ingredients in some easier cave."

"Easier cave? Which one is that?" - Lena laughed. "If it isn't grummites, it'll be gnarls or elytras, and I don't know which is worse."

They got Aquanostrum for Bernice.

"Why do you even bother with her?" - asked Dylan. "You know Aquanostrum is not going to cure her Hypochondria."

"True" - agreed Lena. "But it makes her feel better, for a time. Just because her illness is in her head, it doesn't make it any less real."

They spent the night at the Inlet Camp near Fellmore. No fighting was required. The bedrolls were not of the first freshness, it's true, but the camp had roofed shelter which was welcome in that pouring rain. They ate smoked balliwog legs with lettuce and alocasia fruit, washing it down with Fellmore Red. The air was warm and damp, absorbing their tiredness as a sponge. It rained all night.


"Rotten Den?" - Dylan looked at Lena suspiciously. "Zealots. So I take it you want to go in to search for the Fork?"

He was right.

Rotten Den was big and complicated - twisting tunnels with traps and spellcasting statues, and of course zealots with their Flesh Atronach summons. And no sign of any kind of storage where there would be a chance to find the Fork of Horripilation. But then eventually they came into a tunnel with nothing but a hole in the floor. Lena jumped, Dylan didn't.

"I'll just see where this leads you" - he shouted through the hole.

The tunnel that Lena landed in was also empty, except for a hole in the floor. She jumped again. And again. Eventually she found herself landing almost on top of Shambles. Great.

Lena was alone, and she wasn't really after shamble remains, but after the Fork. So she summoned a daedroth as a diversion, cast a chameleon cloak and sneaked past that shambles. This was a smart move - her 30% chameleon allowed her to move unseen, plus she could reinforce it with complete invisibility when necessary. There were a lot of shambles on that level, and she even discovered why: in one of the caverns there were stacks and stacks of coffins, and they were not empty. Someone tied them down with roots - apparently the occupants were keen to get out. Several shambles where pacing among the coffins.

"Shambles are not human or mer" - Lena was thinking. "But they are undead and always turn up near coffins. I wonder if there is a connection..."

But she had to focus on remaining undetected and on checking for chests or urns, so she dismissed these philosophical thoughts until later.

"The Sanctum! That's what it is!" - a tunnel suddenly came into room with stone walls and floor and a giant grummite statue. A zealot was praying to it.


There was a chest by the statue, but alas - no Fork.

After some more wandering in the tunnels among the shambles, Lena found another root door. Dylan was waiting on the other side.

"I found another way, and figured you'd come out here sooner or later. Did you find the Fork?"

"No" - Lena grimaced. "Just lots of coffins and shambles."

"Oh I am not regretting missing that!" - Dylan laughed.

They've gone through the entire den, and still didn't find the Fork. It was well past midnight. At least they could make use of a rather nice camp in one of the caverns.



"Ok, but now we go straight to New Sheoth" - Dylan said in the morning. "Please? I am not actually a warrior - our girls do that."

"I'm not a warrior either" - laughed Lena. "I just get into a lot of fights for some reason."

"Oh - and you are certainly not seeking them out, yes, I see" - Dylan shook his head.

Coming out of the Rotten Den, they went to New Sheoth in a straight line. Although this was supposed to be the shortest way, it was far from the easiest. They encountered an unmarked zealot shrine with six zealots (and six summons), a camp with grummites (including a magus deathbringer), seven gnarls (some elder), seven or eight loose grummites, and two Obelisks of Order. The first one was easy to shut down - they got lucky - so they only had to fight five knights and a priest, but the second one kept reactivating itself, and they ended up fighting a small army of knights (sixteen in all) and the priest (revived four times). Oh, and an odd scalon and baliwog, but they lost count of those.

Finally, they stood at the gates of New Sheoth. It was 3 a.m.

"Am I the only Mazken fighting those knights of order?" - asked Dylan with a sigh. "It certainly feels like it."

"You probably are, at this point. Patrols don't venture into the countryside." Lena felt that Dylan needed some sympathy and reassurance. "You are also the only Mazken to make your Mazken girls jealous." She put her arms around him and gave him a long kiss - in full view of the guard by the gate. That worked - the guard glared at them.

"How may I serve?" - she asked, baring her teeth in a grimace that didn't look like a smile.

"Thanks, but you don't compare" - answered Lena, taking Dylan's hand and opening the gate. "Come" - she turned to Dylan. "Bernice will have food for us, and then we can finally rest up!"

Dylan followed her through the gate, watching the glaring Mazken guard from the corner of his eye. He felt good about himself. Perhaps a lesser warrior than his female counterparts, but still appreciated. He could live with that.

4 Second Seed, 4E202 - Back from the Shivering Isles

"It's time for me to go back" - Lena looked at Dylan and took his hand. "Don't get too lonely without me - find something to do. I'll be back."

"How do you deal with it? When you leave your friends for a time?"

"You get busy with something else, and you make new friends."

"I've left the Mazken order. They won't talk to me."

"No... Well... Two things I can suggest" - Lena looked pensive. "First - ask Sheogorath to release you. Then you can travel to Mundus and to other realms, this will take your mind off things." Dylan shook his head. "Second - talk to the mortals living here. They might surprise you."

"Mazken don't talk to mortals!"

"No? You're talking to one now..." - she smiled.

Dylan looked confused.

"Well... May be I'll just get lucky and Sheogorath will banish me again... until you return" - he said hopefully.

"I think he won't" - Lena recalled her conversation with Sheogorath. "I think he'll let you learn to live like mortals do - without escapes."

She hugged Dylan and kissed him on the cheek.

"You'll figure it out. Ask Jayred Ice-Veins - he's around here somewhere. He's a nice guy and fun to be with - you can go hunting together."

"He's that crazy Nord hunter" - Dylan looked perplexed.

"Perhaps. But he can tell you a thing or two about being mortal."

"You mortals are confusing" - Dylan finally gave up trying to make sense of it all. "But perhaps you're right. And you can bring your friend next time - I won't stay away. After all, if it weren't for him, you would have died in that cave with the chalice."

It was now Lena's turn to look perplexed - and outraged.

"What?!"

"Nothing. Ask him." Dylan smiled. "Go on - do your thing. And I'll go look for Jayred."

...

Jowan was staying at the Mages Guild, so when Lena returned from the Shivering Isles, she found Hauk alone in her house in Bravil reading a book.

"Ah, you're back!" - he greeted her. "Good to see you."

Lena sat by the fire, keeping her gaze on Hauk as he went back to his book.

"What?" - he felt it after a while.

"I saw Dylan."

"About time."

"You knew he'd be there?" - she said, her eyes narrowing.

"No, I didn't. But I had hoped he'd show up without me around. I made some enquiries last time."

"I nearly died! Thadon tried to kill me with that felldew."

"Which is why I made enquiries after he gave you that task last time. I didn't trust him. But I too would have had to take felldew to enter the cave, so my blood would not have saved you. Mazken don't need felldew to enter."

"Right, so you knew that Dylan would show up."

"I knew that someone would come to your aid, I was promised that. Seducers can be friendly, you know" - he winked.

Lena was torn between anger and gratitude. Then something else rose in her - doubt.

"So you weren't jealous?"

"Of Dylan? Oh yes" - Hauk looked at her, searching. "With a good reason, I see. But I'm glad you had fun." He went back to his book.

Lena opened a bottle of Tamika West Weald, poured a goblet for herself, got a bottle of mead for Hauk.

"Dylan doesn't want to come to Mundus" - she said. "And there was something he said... about choices."

"It's too early" - Hauk replied not looking up from the book. "You're not ready yet."

They sat in silence for some time, Hauk slowly turning pages, Lena wondering why several people had been telling her the same thing recently - that she wasn't ready to make any choices yet. When would she be ready? Would she ever be?

"You worry unnecessarily" - Hauk suddenly put down his book. "It's written all over your face" - he smiled. "You have some real friends - myself included - there is no need to choose between us, there never will be a need to choose between your friends. It hasn't been all that long since you returned from that long stay in the Shivering Isles. There are other people in your life that you need to get to know better, people who..." Lena looked up. "Ah, you know who I mean." Hauk nodded. "And yes, I'll be jealous. But I love you - and that means I have to let you find yourself. There, I said it now."

He kept his eyes on Lena for a while, then went back to his book. He wasn't turning any pages.

Lena sat watching him, sipping her wine. Then she got up and went over to sit next to him on the settee. She put her head on his shoulder. He pulled her close. They sat together, like that evening in Ansilvund, but this time Lena wasn't crying. She was quietly smiling - she found peace. She knew what she had to do next.

Something about Jayred. What follows happened a couple of months back, when Lena returned to Mundus but Hauk remained in the Shivering Isles. Apparently, this was when he made "enquiries" regarding Thadon's task to retrieve the chalice. Besides that, Hauk also wanted to explore the Isles for himself a bit, and who better to do it with than Jayred Ice-Veins.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

15 Sun's Dawn, 4E202 - Hauk and Jayred

Lena left the Shivering Isles to attend to some business back in Cyrodiil, but Hauk remained in Crucible until her return. He wanted to explore these lands for himself.

Hauk was no stranger to finding his way in foreign lands. In Antaloor he became a mercenary, in Skyrim during the Great War he was officially a travelling book merchant, but here in the Shivering Isles he decided to see whether the smiths in New Sheoth would be interested in amber and madness ore. Their rivalry was amusing, too.

He went out of the gates of Crucible and ran into Jayred Ice-Veins.

"Oh hello" - Hauk greeted Jayred from a distance. "Do you want to go hunting together? I am looking for amber and madness ore."

"Do the bones call to you too?" - was Jayred's usual greeting, but he agreed. "I don't normally go into caves and dungeons, but together we won't have a problem. I wonder what kind of bones we'll find there?"

Two Nords set off on a hunt... The wild life stood no chance.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

16 Sun's Dawn, 4E202 - Swampgas Hole - Bones

Hauk and Jayred set off from Crucible going South. They ran into a few lone creatures whom they defeated quite easily. Climbing the Jester's Spine Mountains at the Heretics Horn, they were attacked by a pair of particularly aggressive zealots - they found the Howling Halls.

"I hope there are no balverines here" - commented Hauk recalling his less than pleasant encounters in Albion.

"What are they?" - asked Jayred with interest.

"Werewolves of sorts. Similar to the ones in Skyrim, except balverines prefer to stay in their beast form."

"Like some in Skyrim, too. Ever met Farkas?" - Jayred grinned and was going to add something when he got knocked over by a scalon emerging from its invisibility cloak.

"Bloody water balverine!!!" - howled Hauk charging.

The scalon dealt with, they entered the Howling Halls. There were no balverines inside, but they were met by three angry zealot patriarchs emerging from twisted passages. The battle was fierce, and Jayred was struggling to get a good line of sight for the bow. Flesh atronachs could jump as well as the scalons, and the zealots were quick on their feet and deadly with their shock spells. Six agains three, counting the summons, unfair as always.

"I don't like to fight humans" - Jayred was saying getting up after another knock-out. "I prefer beasts. Hunting."

Hauk had been knocked out too, repeatedly. But as long as a mage is alive - even if unconscious - his summon keeps on fighting. Hauk's zombies were no match for the zealots' flesh atronachs but they were more than a match for the zealots themselves - and perceptive to tell a mage from a summon. At length, they won.

The zealots must have been planning something important though because the main part of the Howling Halls was locked and barred. The three patriarchs inside and the two outside were clearly just the sentries.

"I'm glad we could not get in" - said Jayred when they were back outside. "Let's go find some beasts instead."

Following the mountain ridge South, they noticed that some of the larger mushroom trees had cave entrances between their roots. The first one seemed to be a dead end blocked by roots, yet promising creatures inside. After a bit of nosing around, they found another entrance. Swampgas Hole was inhabited by gnarls.

"Great - beasts!" - Jayred was getting excited. "Not exactly bones, but fun to chase!"

He came to regret this shortly afterwards. Five Elder Gnarls swarmed on them in the first swampgas hole - there was a reason the cave had this name. They were pinned down and knocked out over and over. Again, Hauk's summon fought on - a Skeleton Guardian, steady, tough, long lasting, and not using spells.

"I wonder if they make for good firewood" - said Hauk collecting bark and amber.

"No, they smoke too much" - replied Jayred extracting arrows from them.

It took them 36 hours to go through the entire system. They found a bedroll in the depth with a skeleton still resting on it, and decided it wasn't a good place to make camp.

Back outside, it was pouring with rain which was pleasantly cool on their bruises and their hot heads. With the armour completely thrashed and weapons badly degraded, they decided to return to Crucible for food, rest and repairs. They stopped by Bernice's to pick up supplies but didn't want to eat there with her incessant coughing - the Wolf House was just across the street.

"That was some punch-up!" - Jayred was saying with satisfaction taking a good bite out of a smoked baliwog leg. "I wasn't beaten up like that since Jorrvaskr! And that was a while back. How many times did you go down? 50? 100?"

"Something like that" - Hauk agreed helping himself to more mead. "Those gnarls can really swarm."

They examined their spoils: 43 pieces of amber and 45 pieces of gnarl bark, plus half a dozen scalon fins, and other odds and sods.

"We'll sell the loot tomorrow, those enchanted rings and armour will fetch a good price" - said Hauk turning over a pair of Elven boots. "I'm not keeping it - leave the Elven stuff to the Elves."

"I don't want any money" - said Jayred. "But I wouldn't mind a new bow - Cutter makes good ones from madness ore. I'd prefer that to the bright yellow ones from amber."

They talked about weapons and armour, durability and weight, usefulness and comfort, comparing different types and agreeing in the end that the best ones were the ones you got used to. The pile of baliwog legs was shrinking, but there was still plenty of mead left.

"Was that you who killed the Gatekeeper with Lena?" - asked Hauk picking up another smoked leg.

"Yes" - Jayred replied opening the next bottle of mead. "She needed bone arrows for that."

"Did you get to know her well?"

"She's got good bones."

"Whaaa-?" - this wasn't what Hauk was expecting.

"Oh, nothing of the sort" - Jayred looked up. "We never... Why, is she your girl?"

"No..."

"Ahhh - but you want her to be" - Jayred nodded with understanding. "I saw the way you look at her."

"Well..."

"Just because I'm here now, it doesn't mean I wasn't elsewhere before. Or had a girl before. But she didn't have very good bones."

"What happened to her?" - asked Hauk hoping to steer the conversation out of dangerous waters.

"Nothing, she found someone new. He didn't have very good bones either, so they suited each other. I let her be."

"Was that why you left?"

"That, and the War. Too many bones left to rot - too many dead bodies on the battlefield. All pierced with arrows, ours and theirs. Nords, Elves, Imperials, everyone. All are equal in death - no Sovngarde for anyone. Nords left to rot, not embalmed and put into crypts. Their bones perish. Skyrim perishes. So I came here - plenty of bones and not many Nords. And no war."

They ate in silence for a while.

"You've got good bones too" - said Jayred looking at Hauk.

5 Second Seed, 4E202 - Interlude in Bravil

"There are a few things I need to take care of on my own" - Lena said to Hauk in the morning. "Fenris Bero being one."

"You've decided what to do with him then?" - Hauk looked up from his sweetroll.

"He knows botany and alchemy - he tends to the garden and knows to make poisons, Rowley taught him. I'll have him be our alchemist, somehow. He can pick ingredients in the woods too, but he'll need training in making potions... But may be I have an idea" - Lena smiled. "I'll take him to Skingrad."

"Oh!" - Hauk caught on. "That'll take some careful handling, but if it works out..." - he nodded in approval.

"How is Jowan?" - asked Lena. "I hear he's staying at the Mages Guild?"

"He is" - confirmed Hauk. "Kud-Ei is trying to make him to join" - he smirked. "I don't think he will, given his past experiences with a similar organisation, but who knows. Anyhow, Kud-Ei declared that the Guild should welcome a lonely mage without any family here, and I think he appreciates it."

"She means it too" - said Lena, looking into the distance. "She also gave a home to a certain sixteen year old who came to steal their sweetrolls."

"She's been asking about you" - Hauk said softly. "Perhaps you should pay her a visit. Sounds like one of her friends might be in trouble, and she knows you're discreet."

"I'll go see her today" - promised Lena. "And... Hauk?" - she looked at him apologetically. "What you said yesterday about me needing to get to know other people... I'll need to do that, you're right. I might be gone for a while."

"That's Ok" - Hauk took her hand. "You do that. I'll return to the Imperial City - the Legion has been asking for me anyway. Come and find me again when you're done."

5 Second Seed, 4E202 - Manifesto Cyrodiil Vampyrum

Lena arrived at the Leyawiin Sanctuary in the early evening.

"Mistress!" - Fenris greeted her as she entered. "You have returned."

He looked much better than last time when Lena saw him - he was clearly taking care of himself.

"Ah, you are looking better" - she said. "Well done. But you need to feed more often still - I want you to blend in, you will need to travel. Of course people will still recognise you for a vampire when they look closely, but not at a fleeting glance."

She did not want to say that most people in Cyrodiil wouldn't pay him more than a fleeting glance because he was a Dunmer... Instead, she tried a different approach.

"Since the Dunmer already have sanguine eyes, your vampire eyes won't stand out too much" - she smiled. "And your face will look healthy if you feed often enough. Here - read this" - she handed him a copy of Manifesto Cyrodiil Vampyrum.

Fenris looked at her in surprise. "But you are no longer a vampire!"

"True, but I was. It counts."

What did she mean by that? Fenris was confused but didn't dare to ask. He took the book with reverence - as a slave, he wasn't allowed to as much as look at it, but now... he couldn't refuse his Mistress... but that book wasn't written for slaves...

"The book is not cursed" - Lena saw Fenris' hesitation. "It simply teaches how to blend in with the society, as far as possible - you will never be able to blend in completely. Even the best of us couldn't do it..." Her voice trailed off in thought.


"Us?" - Fenris wondered to himself, but again didn't dare to ask.

"Anyway" - Lena returned to reality. "We'll be leaving for Bravil and then Skingrad in a few hours. You won't be able to feed for several days, so make sure to feed well before we go. We leave when I wake up."

She left the room, her black silk robes rustling softly as she walked.

"Thank you, Mistress" - Fenris murmured, not daring to believe the conversation they've just had.

5-6 Second Seed, 4E202 - Leyawiin to Bravil

Lena and Fenris left the Leyawiin Sanctuary soon after sunset to allow them plenty of time to reach Bravil before the sun rose again. Lena wanted to collect some plant cuttings along the way for alchemy, and with the usual fights with wolves, bears and bandits, the trip could easily take them all night. They had to be indoors by sunrise. It was a long time since Lena had to think of this, but she slipped back into the routine with a surprising force of habit.

They entered her house in Bravil just as the first sun rays coloured the sky pink.


"Bravil at sunrise..." - Lena stopped for a moment taking in the familiar sight. In a few minutes the skin would start to burn. She unlocked the door and they entered her house. Fenris let out a sigh of relief.

"Don't tell me" - she looked straight at him. "Rowley had you stay out during the day as punishment?"

"Yes" - Fenris' reply was barely audible.

"'Vampires make for excellent slaves, as you well know'" - Rowley's words echoed in Lena's mind. He had mentioned denying them blood, but of course there were other ways to get compliance, too... Lena shuddered.

"Well, you don't need to worry about that any more" - she said. "You can sleep here" - she pointed at a bedroll spread by the fire. "There is food in this cupboard, and you're welcome to the books, in case you wake up before me. I haven't slept much in the last two days" - she smiled. "We leave at sunset." She turned to her own bed.

If you can't feed, you have to eat and keep warm - Lena still remembered that.

6-7 Second Seed, 4E202 - Bravil to Skingrad - The coven

The trip to Skingrad was uneventful - they took a direct route along the border, picking more plant cuttings along the way. They made good time, approaching Skingrad several hours before sunrise.

"Before we go into the city, there are some people I want you to meet" - Lena opened the door to the Bloodcrust Cavern.

...

"Wolf?" - the sentry greeted her. "Good to see you. Bernice is inside."

"Hello, Aldryn" - Lena smiled. "This is Fenris - I want him to meet Bernice."

Aldryn nodded with understanding.

Lena and Fenris walked through the caves greeting several other people along the way. Vampires. Was that a..?

"Bernice!" - Lena saw her at the back of a cave. "Everything is quiet, I trust? The Count?"

"Hasn't bothered us at all, thank you" - smiled Bernice. "I see you brought a new member" - she nodded at Fenris.


"Well, may be not quite a member" - Lena looked around the room. "But I was hoping for a favour... an arrangement, perhaps?" - she smiled at Bernice. "This is Fenris Bero, he is my... assistant - he does alchemy. I was wondering if perhaps you could allow him to make use of your captives in exchange for..."

"Of course he is welcome!" - Bernice interrupted Lena. "No exchange is required. We owe you. Millie!" - she called. "Can you take Fenris to feed, please?"

When Millie and Fenris disappeared into the passage, Bernice turned to Lena.

"He is your slave, is he not?" - her gaze was stern.


"Yes" - Lena admitted. "I bought him without knowing it, but I cannot abandon him now. I tried telling him that his enslavement was over, but he..."

"Doesn't know how not to be a slave?" - Bernice finished the sentence. "Yes, I've seen it often enough. So what do you intend to do?"

"He knows alchemy, and I want him to focus on that" - Lena looked at Bernice and smiled. "Thank you for letting him feed with you. I have a house in Skingrad and with the abundance of plants around here, he should be staying a while. Let him supply you with ingredients at least - he can make poisons, but not potions yet."

Bernice was listening and nodding.

"And I suppose you want him to blend in?"

"He'll need to."

"Yes" - Bernice agreed. "Very well, we have an arrangement. I'll speak to the others. He should come every night."

...

"Bernice is the Matriarch of this coven" - said Lena when she and Fenris were outside, going towards the gates of Skingrad. "We have agreed that you can come and feed with them every night that you stay here in exchange for alchemy supplies. She'll tell you tomorrow what kind of ingredients they are looking for."

Lena stopped and turned to Fenris. He looked surprised and confused.

"Ingredients..?" - he murmured. "Coven... You help vampires?" - he finally breathed.

"Some of them, yes" - answered Lena. "I killed many, too. It depends."

"Manifesto Cyrodiil Vampyrum" - Fenris' face lit up with understanding. "Blend in."

"Exactly" - Lena smiled. "Tailor your lifestyle to your requirements. Plenty of people are out after sunset, not just the vampires."

...

"So, this is my house" - Lena ushered Fenris in. "This isn't my main residence, but I stop here often enough, and usually with friends. There is a bed on the upper floor and also in the basement. I set up a small work area upstairs, so perhaps if you were to settle there, then I'll take the basement?"

She led him upstairs, showing him around. Tables, cupboards, book cases, alchemical appliances... Fenris started to relax. He eyed the big double bed with suspicion, and Lena made a mental note to add a single bed for him... She had already shipped the unicorn to Skyrim.


They sat down for a meal - was that dinner or breakfast? It was morning, but of course their nights and days had switched places.

"Not everyone wants the cure" - Lena said when the conversation turned to the coven. "Most vampires have no access to it anyway, and it has side effects. If I had known in advance..." - she broke off. "But it's done now. Have you considered the cure yourself?" - she looked at Fenris. "My great-uncle had a pool built in the Leyawiin Sanctuary."

Fenris looked at her in surprise. "I never had a choice! But I've heard of the pool. One of the recruits had used it... he died soon after that - he had become weak and couldn't regenerate."

"Yes, that's one of the side effects" - agreed Lena. "But it does remove the disease. Anyway, I understand if you are not thrilled by it, but you're welcome to that pool if you want it."

Fenris shook his head. "If you don't mind, Mistress... please... no."

"Mistress..." - Lena thought looking at him. "This is going to take a while..."

7 Second Seed, 4E202 - Fenris in Skingrad

"Hello, Falanu" - Lena walked into All Things Alchemical followed by Fenris. "How have you been keeping?"

"Oh, fine, thank you. Your usual?" - she asked, turning to fetch boxes of nightshade, peony and sacred lotus. "Oh!" She saw Fenris.

"This is my assistant - nothing to worry about" - Lena smiled reassuringly. "He knows how to behave, and he has some botanical and alchemical knowledge too. May I present - Fenris Bero."

Falanu stared at him in disbelief for some time. Then she caught herself. "You better come through" - she locked the shop door beckoning them to follow her upstairs.

Once they were seated around a table, Lena took the lead.

"Fenris has been away from Morrowind for over 200 years, and he didn't have many opportunities to keep up with the events." Lena took a deep breath. "Falanu - Fenris was given to me as a slave, that's what he's been for most of the time since he turned."

A light of understanding shown on Falanu's face.

"However" - Lena continued - "to me Fenris is an assistant and his condition not a threat. He is going to take care of my alchemy supplies, collecting ingredients, preparing poisons and remedies, and making sure we never run out of things. I have a house here in Skingrad, and he'll be staying here some of the time. I was hoping he could make purchases at your store on my behalf."

Fenris sat quietly watching Lena and Falanu and not daring to touch his drink. Falanu seemed to lighten up with every word Lena said. Then there was a sigh of relief. She picked up her goblet and started drinking slowly, looking at Fenris, lost in thought.

"Fenris Bero..." she said softly. Fenris jerked slightly, looking up. "I remember you... a long time ago. You disappeared. So that's what's happened... Cousin."

Fenris winced. "I was ostracised, as soon as the disease set in" - he said. "I have no cousins."

"You need not worry" - said Falanu, smiling. "I have been ostracised too, for another reason. We can be cousins now."

Lena felt that it was necessary to diffuse the situation.

"Well, I am sure you will have plenty of occasions to catch up" - she raised a toast. "Here is to new beginnings!"

Fenris sat motionless at first, then caught himself and raised his goblet too. They drank and exchanged pleasantries.

"Thank you, Falanu, but we should be going" - said Lena after a little while. "Lots to do. Fenris will be staying in Skingrad for a time - settling in and all that."

"Oh, of course!" - Falanu came out of her trance. "Yes, please come in to the shop when you need anything. I shall also gladly buy your surplus ingredients, as usual. Or offer some training" - she looked at Fenris and smiled.