We all decide to take a proper rest after that battle, we might have culled the number of undead but we can't be sure just how many of them await on the other side.
"So Davos." I hear Marco say to my left "Why did you get into this business?"
Davos who seems to be chewing something grunts and swallows "You don't survive the streets of Windhelm as an orphan without toughening up and learning to hide from prying eyes." He seems to reminisce for a moment "Then I guess I just got good enough at not getting seen or caught that I get to be paid for it now."
"Aww, such a tragic little story" Sybille says condescendingly from her position at the door leading forward.
Davos sighs "What do you want woman?"
"So rude." She huffs playfully "I am bored and waiting for you lot to rest up so we can go on is getting very annoying."
He glares at her "And how come you aren't tired then? I saw you almost fly into those skeletons."
I turn just in time to see her lick her lips "Well that my dear is because the undead don't get tired."
Davos sighs and nods to himself, then starts grumbling something unintelligible obviously frustrated.
Marco on the other hand looks at her dumbly "What do you mean by that exactly?"
She winks at him and waves him off "Oh don't worry your pretty little head about it." He blushes, making her giggle. I felt a bit of charm hit the boy, but as long as she doesn't go overboard I don't care.
"You are one sadistic woman." I say and before she can respond Scorch flies back through the door, sending me his memories of what awaits in front of us.
Sybille is the first to ask "So what has the little fire chicken seen?"
Scorch as any good boy immediately flips her the bird making her eye twitch.
"It is mostly hallways and personal rooms from here, the last one was closed but I expect it is the reliquary holding the artifact we are here for." I explain.
"You never did say what exactly we were here for." Davos says while cleaning up our campsite.
"Probably forgot about it, not that it mattered for our preparations." I shrug and explain "We are here for the sword known as Dawnbreaker, also widely seen as the primary artifact of Meridia."
Marco lets out a quiet gasp "I saw this sword mentioned in many stories, uncountable heroes are said to have wielded it against vile necromancers. It is surprising it found its way into Skyrim."
"Not really" I shake my head "Daedric artifacts have a tendency of traveling on their own to the place they might be needed, it just so happens that Skyrim is going to be the center of many important events in the coming years so it is not that surprising it is here."
"Interesting." My bardic student mutters "What do you mean by many important events?"
"Hmmm, the most obvious one is that the conflict between Stormcloak and the King will inevitably erupt to greater proportions, thus leading to many other problems of the less than natural variety rearing their ugly heads all across the province."
He pales "There will be war then?"
I nod seriously "Without question."
"Why has no one tried to do anything about it if it is so obvious to everyone?"
"And what would you have them do Marco? Ulfric is far too belligerent and ambitious to accept anything less than the crown and killing him will just make a martyr out of him, while the High King is constantly getting sabotaged by the Thalmor, not to mention the other issues he has to face."
He stares off into the distance "There really is nothing to be done then?"
I take a swig from my waterskin and say plainly "This conflict has been in the making for well over a decade now, all we can hope to do is reduce the damage when it does happen."
Sybille laughs quietly "Come now Reyvin, why would you care if a bunch of fools decide to slaughter each other? Let them cut each other to pieces I say."
Marco gives her a surprised look "Aren't you the King's court mage?"
She merely smiles "Indeed, I am first and foremost a mage. Meaning I shouldn't care all too much about the conflicts of lessers."
I snort "Lessers? Really?"
She shrugs "I know my place in life, why should I pretend otherwise?"
I roll my eyes "Whatever you say. Now while I agree that participating in a civil war would be a massive waste of time and possibly lead to my death, need I remind you of the part where the war will cause supernatural issues all over the province?"
"What could a mundane war possibly cause?" She raises an eyebrow.
"Something like, say..." I scratch my chin "A vampiric lord finally breaking through the prison that is his home and wreaking havoc on the mortals while enthralling those of his bloodline who previously escaped his clutches?"
She is in front of me in a split second, but I don't even flinch, having fully expected it, with a threatening stare she slowly asks "You aren't playing with me are you now? Because trust me Reyvin I am not amused."
"I wouldn't joke about something like this." I say carefully.
She throws her hands up in frustration "Of course this damnable world can't let me have my peace!"
"Just prepare for it then." I calmly state.
Her head snaps back in my direction "Just prepare is it? Do you know just who exactly we are talking about?!"
"Someone who bleeds." I say simply.
Seeing as I wasn't going to elaborate she asks impatiently "Your point Reyvin?"
I smile "Simple, if it bleeds we can kill it."
--------------------------
We soon proceed deeper into the temple, the halls are far more narrow, making attacking us a far less attractive prospect.
Along the way we find more beacons and light them up, slowly spreading Meridia's power throughout the monument.
I decide that we would skip pillaging this one, seeing as the resident Daedra is literally watching us at the moment doing anything that could be considered a desecration would be a really bad idea.
We finally arrive at the entrance to the reliquary and waiting for us stood all of the remaining undead, exactly in front of the final beacon's pedestal.
In front of the small army stood what I was certain was an actual Volkihar agent, if his style of dress was anything to go by. The youthful vampire smiled at our approach "So the heroes finally descend into the jaws of death. We expected you earlier." He says mockingly.
"Your friends toss you out here to deal with us alone then?" I ask, mocking him back.
The vampire snarls "Silence mortal!"
A toothy smile is my response "Or? What are you going to do about it?"
He turns around and heads to the final door "I won't be doing anything. Enjoy the reception prepared for you."
The moment he closes the doors behind him the horde of skeletons charge at us, the fight is once again a hard fought one, but this time we quickly retreated into one of the hallways and after a long and tedious process of grinding them down at a chokepoint, with Sybille and I doing most of the work the undead are all turned to ash.
As I am checking for more attackers I hear Sybille hiss and turn to see her clutching her singed arm "Watch your damned aim Reyvin, I know you are feeling peppy with your new powers, but I don't like getting sunburned."
"Maybe you shouldn't jump into my spells like some kind of caffeinated hamster!" I snark back.
"A caffeinated hamster? Really?" She deadpans.
"It sums up your movements perfectly." I raise my nose at her.
While Sybille is deciding whether to be insulted or not I approach the two remaining members of our party "The two of you should stay behind for this one."
Davos immediately agrees "As you say boss."
Marco, who is sporting many scratches and small cuts at this point, merely slumps onto the ground waiting for the potion I gave him to kick in.
After making sure they remained alert I head toward the final gate, as Sybille and I get closer to the final fight I ask "How strong do you think they will be?"
She sniffs the air, earning a comical look from me "Don't look at me like that, if I can make use of my enhanced senses you can bet your grey ass I will."
"So grouchy madam, does the mosquito need a sip?" I snark.
The madwoman actually purrs, sending a shiver down my spine "Don't tempt me."
"As the madam says." I quickly surrender.
"To answer your question, none of them seem to be vampiric lords." She says after some time.
"Met one have you?" It would be nice to learn about their actual power.
Now it is her turn to have a shiver run down her spine as she says "I would rather not talk about it."
Maybe later then "Of course" I nod in understanding "Any advice?"
"Don't die~" She chirps.
With a roll of my eyes I kick open the door and am met with six hungry red eyes.
The same vampire that spoke to us outside steps in front of the other two who seem to defer to him, he looks us over and scoffs "I knew I should have killed you myself, now I will have to explain to that brat Malkoran that his skeletons got destroyed."
"You don't sound all that unhappy about it." I say while examining them.
He smirks "Aren't you a perceptive little mortal."
"And aren't you arrogant for a mere bloodsucker's servant." I say and before he can react launch a golden fireball at him.
Without even flinching he dissipates into a cloud of bats and appears at the other end of the room "How pitiful."
"Uh huh." I say in a deadpan and pull out a solar cloak scroll activating it immediately, and rush toward him.
Sybille naturally had the good sense to distance herself and started attacking the other two vampires with fireballs of her own.
The lead vampire pulls out his sword "What is this? A mage dares enter melee with an elder vampire?"
I snort and summon my staff while calling him on his bravado "Oh please, you wouldn't know an elder if you saw one."
He snarls and rushes me, his elven sword aimed at my heart.
I evade and swing for his leg, but he once again uses his bat teleportation ability to distance himself while patting himself with his free hand due to the minor damage caused by my cloak spell "I see you aren't that useless after all... maybe I will make a thrall out of you."
"You will try." I grasp my staff with both hands and prepare.
He wants to taunt me again but I am moving once more, I pretend to go in for an attack but instead summon Scorch who distracts him by flying into his face just enough for me to land a strike on his leg, setting it on fire.
"ARGH!" He flinches back "You piece of filth! I WILL HAVE YOUR HEAD!"
He drops his blade and claws grow out of his fingers, it seems I may have pissed him off a wee bit.
(Sybille's pov)
They turn absolutely anyone these days it would appear.
The youngling takes a swing at my head but it is so incredibly slow I might fall asleep, unfortunately the other one also attacks so I have to actually put in some effort.
Is every vampire these days a damn brute? Do they not have the good sense to use the incredible amount of time they have for anything besides gorging themselves on blood?
What a bunch of children.
Another quick dodge and another gash in the little pups side.
How very uncouth, let a lady monologue will you?
Before the one I wounded can recover I flash to the next one and he alone is nowhere near enough to fight me off. His head meets the ground and turns to ash within moments.
I turn to the other one but suddenly a blinding light explodes from the reliquary.
What did that foolish boy do now?
(Reyvin's pov, a bit earlier)
The angered vampire flashes in front of me and rapidly swipes with his claws, I manage to block one but the other sinks into my thigh.
Probably would have lost that leg without ironflesh being active.
The beast goes in for a bite but instead of flinching I stare at him and shout "YOL!"
He dodges rapidly, only getting his skin burned off but keeping all his limbs. He lets out another maddened shriek and somehow grows even faster, this time I don't manage to block any of his attacks and even through my armor I feel the claws rake my chest and arm.
Suppressing a pained growl I launch him away with telekinesis and start brainstorming a response, I could bombard the fucker with spells but he will just dodge and single word shouts aren't strong enough.
As thoughts race through my mind I notice a dim glow coming from the reliquary and remember the sword.
The mad beast dashes at me once more, but this time I look away from him and at the blade I came here for "WULD!" I appear in front of it, and almost as if purposely timed a beam of light comes from the other room ending just above the relic.
I pull the sword out of its venerated position, just as I feel a shadow come over me, and place the sheathed blade into the light.
The moment the handle touches the lightbeam an explosion of solar energies erupts all around me, launching my enemy away and burning his skin off fully.
I quickly unsheathe the sword and am enveloped by the same feeling I got while channeling Meridia earlier, just a lot more focused.
I feel the blade trying to change me, inviting me to surrender myself over to the service of its master, but after my earlier rampage I have already steeled myself for something like this and I take the power it offers into the iron grip of my mind.
The self proclaimed 'elder' vampire has just enough time to let out a final maddened shriek as I raise the blade up on high and swing down, launching a blade of golden light.
The pitiful creature is completely disintegrated and I quickly sheathe the whispering blade, making its seductive power dissipate and turn to see Sybille draining the remaining vampire dry.
I blink "You sure that is sanitary?"
She groans and drops him onto the ground "You just had to ruin my victory meal."
"Whatever, we have a Daedra to meet." I wish I bit my tongue as the room shifts into a shimmering palace, and upon the throne at its other end sits a woman of such beauty, one might forget she was a demon then and there.
"Do not fret, for I am already here children." She says with a smile that sends shivers down my spine.
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