"There it is, home sweet home." Serana voices blandly.
"Bigger than I expected" I note idly as I observe the dozens of tall towers, many of them in ruins, looming over a veritable fortress island "And also far more disgusting" I add with a mildly offended sniff.
Quickly catching my meaning she asks "How so?"
I cup my chin and narrow my eyes "Think of somehow turning unbridled cruelty and decadence into a color and have it virtually bursting from atop the entire structure." And that was the best way I could put what I was seeing into words, the aura of the place was genuinely disgusting to look upon, the echoes of everyone ever tormented within scraping at the edge of my senses.
Honestly, if not for my strength and experience I'd be scared shitless right about now.
"Oh..." Serana cringes lightly.
But I tap her shoulder and draw her attention before she can go down that particular thought spiral "No point thinking about it now, we are here to stop it after all."
She exhales slowly and nods "Yes. Yes, we are."
"Speaking of, how do you plan to sneak us in?" I ask the important question.
She looks around for a moment before noticing something "There is an old enchanted boat here that can only be used by someone from the castle. They don't usually check on it as most either stay in the castle permanently or use magic to leave."
"But there is a detection system, no?" I ask firmly.
She thinks for a moment and nods "Yes, but you assured me that that would not be a problem."
"Merely making sure" I assure her and summon my new shroud, barely even feeling it as the powerful artifact covers me in its nearly imperceptible entirety. With a satisfied smile I point my hand toward the rickety boat "Lead the way, my lady."
---
The revolting aura became all that much stronger as we passed the threshold of the mist surrounding the castle, a part of me wanted to just turn my perception down to a minimum but that would make me far more vulnerable and was definitely not worth doing in the name of mere comfort.
Our offensively low class transport floated next to the small dock with nary a sound and upon reaching a certain point simply stopped, moving back toward the mainland shore the moment we stepped off.
My eyes immediately narrowed as I noticed the dozen or so gargoyle statues hanging off a nearby lookout tower "How charming."
"You can sightsee when we are not in the open" Serana hisses and tugs my arm and quickly leads us to an outcropping of rock to the castle's west, letting out a sigh of relief as we finally find some cover.
I take a thorough peek around our position and point my thumb toward a stone structure connected to the sea "That the supply entrance you mentioned?"
"Yes, it has been out of use for some time so there shouldn't be that many guards there."
"Right. Anything I should avoid?"
"Try avoiding any flashier spells." She decides after a moment "There is no guarantee that they will get us spotted but we best err on the side of caution."
I try not to pout and fail utterly, earning myself an exasperated stare from the vampire lady "Fine" I sigh "No blowing the castle half to bits."
"You can do that once we are ready to leave." She permits with some amusement.
"You couldn't stop me even if you tried." I smirk and flick the Ebony Blade into my hand "But first we need to actually get in."
-------------------
The stone supply dock was watched over by a pair of short walls carved into the side of the cave that housed it, some thrall archers and a pair of very bored vampires stood watch, or at least pretended to as not one of them expected an actual attack in this godsforsaken place.
With a simple application of telekinesis I quickly scaled the southern wall without making a single sound, appearing behind one of the thralls and slitting his throat before he could even panic. Three more fell before I was spotted, a slightly misaligned stab leading into one of the thralls screaming out in pain.
But it was far too late for the vampires' mortal servants as I was already right next to them before they could even draw their bows, my dagger sucking out their lifeforce so quickly a couple of them were partially turned into dust before I could pull the strike back.
One of the vampires attempted to use the death of his servants as a distraction and jump me from behind but without even turning around I summoned a group of my shades and had a trio of them block the heavy overhead sword swipe together while another group held him in place for but a brief moment.
More than enough time for me to flick my free hand toward him and summon Blasphemy, killing him in an instant.
Casting my gaze to the other side of the wall I could see that Serana was no less successful, as the entirety of the wall was covered in fine chunks of flesh and she was just about done draining the other vampire to their true death.
Without pausing we enter the lower castle, the numerous undead hounds within ignoring us completely as they saw Serana as one of their masters and were unable to detect me at all.
As we stalked through the mostly empty corridors a terrible smell assaulted our senses, the light clanking of bone quickly reminding me of what we were about to find.
As we passed another empty corner we were greeted by a large chamber filled to the brim with a veritable mountain still bloody bones, traces of yet undevoured flesh being quickly stripped off said bone by a group of feral vampires, many of them not even bothering with clothes and looking more like humanoid bats than actual people.
I shared a disgusted look with Serana before channeling all my burgeoning fury into an illusion spell and directing it toward the ferals, which turned out to be overkill as it took only the slightest nudge for the mindless beasts to fall upon each other over their competition for food.
Only one survived the ensuing slaughter, and I rid the world of its filth with a silent blade of wind, severing the vile creature in twain.
We remained silent as we ascended further, only speaking when Serana instructed me on how best to avoid certain traps and which paths to follow. I took great pleasure in ending whichever creature had the audacity to stand in our path after what I had seen, though I still made sure not a sound was made.
After close to an hour of trudging through Harkon's rotten halls I finally felt the smell of fresh air and as Serana pulled yet another hidden chain and the thin stone wall before us lowered to reveal a beautiful if somewhat overgrown garden, the smell of the no doubt highly poisonous flowers removing the stench of flesh and rot almost entirely.
I took a deep, liberating breath, absent mindedly noting that my anti-poison ring was activated when I did so, and then, with a serene smile, started cursing all possible generations of Harkon's family.
A good minute of the vilest insults on both Nirn and Earth later a very amused Serana asked "Are you quite finished?"
"Yes, thank you." I nod and smile serenely like I didn't just offend her entire family line. A moment later the smile was replaced with a deep frown "I knew the place was going to suck but not to this extent."
She looks away, hiding a slight wince "It never got this bad before..."
I give her a deadpan look "Any level of it is just as bad, don't try and defend it."
"I wasn't going to." She huffs, mildly annoyed.
"Well excuuuse me princess." I let some of my disgust leak into my voice "I just didn't expect that even a monster such as Harkon would just make a charnel house under his own home. You'd think a noble would have some standards but no, let us just behave like complete and utter beasts, because fuck principles!" I scoff "So much for the proud Volkihar."
She palms her face and sighs "I do not disagree, but are you quite done venting yet? We do have a job to do."
Catching myself, I exhale and allow my frustration to leave me "Yeah, fine. I sense some kind of mechanism under the sundial looking thing in the center there so we should start from that." I point at the stone construct jutting out from the middle of the garden.
"The moon dial." Serana mutters and starts looking it over "My mother made it a project of hers to make something that would show time at night just to see if she could. It ended up being far more complex than we ever expected but when the garden was still clear and the moonlight fell just right it made for a beautiful sight."
"I can picture it" I offer genuinely "Then again an immortal without a hobby is a dull thing."
"Very" Serana smiles wryly "Most vampires usually end up as stagnant caricatures but not my mother. She always found something new to do and still kept up with her earlier projects... Just imagine a garden tended to for centuries by a true master." Her smile turns wistful at the memory.
I allow her to reminisce for a brief moment before pointing at the dial "Some parts appear to be missing, you think it was on purpose?"
"It would not surprise me." She sends a quick glance toward the ruined southern entrance "Considering how well she knew my father she must have expected him to bar any memory of her... I don't think even she expected him to do it quite so literally."
"Fucking thousands of years old and still throwing tantrums" I snort and wave her on "Come on, those missing pieces won't find themselves."
We take our time searching for the missing pieces, mostly as a way to take a break as we knew that no one was going to go behind Harkon's back and actually check on the garden, and as the sun is slowly replaced by the moons we slot the circular tablets into their intended spots and watch with interest as the dial retracts into a circular stairwell leading into yet another passage.
"I swear to Azura, your mother must have gotten off on the idea of secret passages." I deadpan, and ignoring Serana's indignant glare step into the darkness once again.
Thankfully the air within is not tainted with a thousand dead so I do not feel rushed in my exploration, slowly examining the dusted halls and looting them for all they were worth.
I did have to promise Serana that I'd give her most of the value though, simply stealing it in front of her was not going to fly no matter the excuse.
We had to slow down somewhat as she was forced to manually deactivate each and every gargoyle we passed due to all of them being personalized and carrying her mother's mark.
Why did we not simply destroy them? One might ask themselves.
Simple really, why destroy what you can repurpose?
After a slow descent we began to climb upwards, my sight quickly informing me that we were ascending one of the less damaged towers to the castle's north. The halls became smaller the higher up we got but far more opulent, with traces of multiple forms of workshops, anything from alchemy to ritualism to carpentry, it could be found up here.
And then we stepped into her actual study and I almost started looting the place then and there, only stopped by Serana's knowing look and threatening smile.
Damn you private property!
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To all of you wise enough to pay the troll toll
the next installment is here.
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