I approach the stone pedestal at the center of the chamber, my sight working at full power to ensure I wasn't about to get bombarded by some ridiculous trap array that only an immortal mage with too much time on her hands would have the patience to create.
Though imagine my surprise when I learned that the only thing of consequence that the chamber held was a large-scale stasis ward of immense power and efficiency intertwined with another smaller one of its kind.
Preparing myself mentally I placed the hand of the dead thrall on the thin stone pedestal and a spike immediately stabbed out from it, draining all the blood from the corpse within an instant.
'Holy shit, thank all the gods for my paranoia' I shudder at the thought of unlocking the thing the old fashioned way.
The great ward unraveled itself with such elegance I would not be wrong in calling it a work of art, though at a certain point it began seeming more tacky than anything to my learned eyes.
Without any prompting from myself, the silver braziers moved around the circular grooves surrounding the pedestal and soon the ward was unlocked, a stone monolith rising from within and the stasis spell coming to an end.
It made sense in hindsight, why make Serana sleep through thousands of years if you could just freeze her in time? I do not know just how long vampires can sleep in this universe, especially Daughters of Coldharbour, but making it so that Serana didn't have to replenish blood for an indeterminate amount of time was definitely a wise choice by Valerica.
Ceasing my incessant rambling I approach the monolith and, following my earlier caution, I telekinetically open it up.
And there she stood, just as I remembered, with shoulder length black hair, glowing red eyes, skin so pale it might as well be porcelain, and clothes that were for whatever reason ahead of the current times of the world yet were created entire eras ago.
Yet what surprised me the most was the feeling her aura gave out, it was as powerful as I expected but the feeling of fragility most definitely didn't fit the image I had of her, then again the way in which Daughters of Coldharbour are created really should have clued me in on her potential mental state.
The moment our eyes met I felt something slam into my mental defenses but this was an old game to me at this point, the constant practice I had with Sybille had helped me stop any and all vampiric seduction and the constant emotional influence that the Daedra attempted to impose on me left me feeling naught but disdain for Serana's instinctual attempt.
Incidentally, Scorch decides this is the perfect moment to appear on my shoulder and mutter something about the vampire having an 'n'wah moment'.
I force myself not to reflexively shout her to pieces and take a deep breath "Kindly do not attempt that again or I will literally feed you the fucking sun."
She tilts her head in surprise at my resistance and completely ignoring her attempt at mind rape she asks without a hint of emotion "Who are you?"
I scoff "Apparently Volkihar didn't teach his brat manners, who would have guessed?"
She suddenly seems very tense for some reason yet just as she is about to enter a combat stance she finally feels the light pressure coming from her left side, and slowly turns to see Nightshade pressing a silver dagger just near where her heart should be while a mid-cast solar spell danced in her other hand.
Understanding her situation she slowly turns to me, still hiding her emotions "I am Serana, though I guess you already knew that if you know of my father."
"And I am Lord Dagoth Reyvin, Court Mage of Skyrim." I bow lightly "At your service."
She raises an eyebrow at my title but doesn't comment and instead asks "What do you want from me?"
"Ah, jumping straight to the point, are we? No questions about the current year or how long you have slept?" I ask teasingly but it falls completely flat judging from her dead expression.
"Fine, fine!" I raise my hands placatingly "The reason I found you is that your father's cronies would have done so if I didn't kill them all. Unfortunately, that also meant that it would only be a matter of time before he noticed that his servants were gone and this whole place would soon be crawling with even more vampires, and so I chose to wake you up."
"And yet you have not taken the chance to kill me?" Her eyebrow quirks by the tiniest margin, signaling her curiosity.
I shrug "What can I say, I am a sucker for a nice tragedy and your story made me want to see if you were worth not killing on the spot." And I wasn't joking here, if she proved to be a monster I really would kill her without any remorse. I might have liked her all those years ago but this was an actual person and a creature of immense power as well.
Her brows furrow almost imperceptibly "And am I supposed to simply believe that you somehow know more about me?"
"What you think or believe really doesn't matter here, miss Daughter of Coldharbour." I stare at her pointedly, not missing the light wince at the mention of her title "I know for a fact that your father has some ridiculous plan that requires you and that nifty little scribble on your back to succeed, and that is enough for me to get interested."
Her hand goes to grasp the Elder Scroll slung over her back but she stops herself as her eyes meet an innocently smiling Nightshade once again, her dagger still very much pressed against the vampire.
"I have no real reason to take you out as you seem to not share your kind's widespread idiocy." I cut into her no doubt many thoughts "But I need to know here and now if you plan on aiding your father in any way, and kindly do not try and lie to me for that would be most foolish." I flick the Blade of Blasphemy back into my right hand to accentuate my point.
Her eyes snap to it fearfully before she calms down near instantly and shakes her head "I have no reason to aid my father, he had long since been replaced with a monster wearing his skin."
"As if a Balite wasn't a monster in the first place." I scoff and Serana pointedly looks anywhere but at me, her inner conflict plain to see even through her lifeless facade "What do you know about his plans anyway?" I return to the point.
She once again considers attempting to just book it but thinks better of it "He wants to defeat the 'tyranny of the sun' and has been obsessed with doing so for almost as long as I can remember."
"So just the basics then." I hum "He either doesn't know the steps hidden in the scroll or does and has hidden it from you due to just what it contains."
"You speak as if you already know." Her expression is still utterly calm but I can sense the immense desire to know behind her cold tone.
I shrug "We would have to come to an agreement first, I see no reason to help you if our alliance remains uncertain."
She frowns "You spoke nothing of this alliance."
"Did you really think I would let a vampire of your power simply run around as you desire?" I raise an eyebrow "I am the Court Mage of this province and the only justification I would have for sparing you would be your help against the many vampire incursions happening all across the holds."
'Good bullshitting right there pops' Scorch laughs through our connection.
"So you want me to fight my own family?" She asks tersely.
I shrug "Just the idiots among them. Harkon's plan will inevitably see the Volkihar dead and buried and I am offering you a chance to avoid such a fate."
She stares at me unblinkingly for a long time, no doubt weighing her options, before she finally speaks "I hold no love for my father or his ideals, but..."
I roll my eyes and audibly mutter "Anything before 'but' is bullshit."
I note a glint of amusement in her eyes as she speaks up "But." She repeats firmly "I need to see the state of the castle and the clan myself before making any decisions."
I palm my face "And you no doubt plan to do it while carrying the scroll right into the jaws of Harkon."
She stills at my words and holds back a wince at her oversight "I would need to bring it with me to avoid suspicion..."
"And I have no reason to trust you would remove it from his grasp after you returned to your clan." I sigh.
"Then we seem to be at an impasse." She says coldly "I cannot ever leave the castle if I do not enter with the scroll."
"I get that, the only thing that would keep your father even moderately reasonable is the scroll." I raise a hand placatingly "But the issue is if he gets his hands on the scroll he starts moving far more aggressively and due to the current state of the province that would lead to immense civilian casualties."
"The scroll is mine." She says, though even I can see she doesn't really give her own argument much weight nor does she truly believe in it "He would not be able to take it without creating open conflict within the clan."
"And you being what you are would give him enough pause to let you escape, is that it?" I quirk an eyebrow "That still sounds incredibly risky." I mutter.
Before she can retort I speak again "How about this, you travel with me for a while and learn everything you have missed in the past couple thousand years, and when I feel ready you pay a nice visit to Castle Volkihar and learn what they are doing?"
Once more she takes her time mulling over my offer but as I expected she ultimately agrees "Very well, learning about the world would be useful no matter what I do and I trust you will not be so foolish as to attempt placing a leash on me while I do so."
"Of course not." I huff, surprising even myself "I abhor enslavement of any kind and would rather avoid doing such things to others, but do keep in mind that you will have to be the one to leash yourself if you wish to avoid getting mobbed to death."
She nods and her demeanor seems to shift from incredibly cold to being somewhat at ease. She cups her chin and offers a predatory smile "I don't know, what if I am feeling particularly peckish?"
Apparently, she is relaxed enough to taunt me by now... Sure, I can work with that "Then you get to feast on skeevers." I answer with a smile of my own. The shudder of utter disgust that follows my words is oddly satisfying.
"You can stop being stabby now Nightshade." I tell the diminutive Falmer and she lazily sheathes her dagger, a movement often practiced by Davos now that I think about it... Were the two of them training together?
"Thanks." Serana interrupts my thoughts and stretches her limbs one by one, she must be feeling eternal muscle cramps right now and I really do not even want to imagine how those feel.
"Right." I drawl "You got everything you need here? No hidden chambers hiding uncountable wealth or ancient weapons created for when you awaken?"
She gives me an odd look "No."
"Well whatever then, let us get moving." I turn and call out to Alor "You done with the sketch yet?"
"Just about my lord!" His echoie voice sounds back.
"Um..." Serana shifts uncomfortably "You know how I have been sleeping for a long time now..."
"There are three fresh corpses back there." I lazily point toward the entrance.
She clears her throat "I was um... hoping for something a bit more fresh."
"Right, Nightshade you see any skeevers around?" I ask my vassal.
"I am certain I will be able to find a dozen or three." The diminutive snow elf answers with utter certainty.
"Corpses it is!" The ancient vampire interrupts with almost lively enthusiasm.
----------------------------------
There once was a hero named Ragnar the Red
if he had stones maybe he would not be so deaaaad!
If you want to support me directly and get access to 35ish chapters (Some 70k-ish words) in advance visit my patreon page patreon .com/Rastislav156
If you want to discuss the story or just meme about join my discord server: https://discord.gg/NsDHGQpvsF (refreshed)