Nightshade and deathbell bloomed profusely in stout pots placed strategically about the courtyard. Bare trees and shrubs pointed their skeletal branches toward the sky, their leaves never again to grow in the perpetual winter of the northern sea. Balconies opening before large doors that either lay collapsed or abandoned sat at each side of the square garden. In the center, a great sundial pointed its gnomon toward the sky like the fin of a salmon as it rushed upstream. Instead of numbers, the device was labeled in crystalline mirror shapes that reminded me of moon phases, though some appeared to be missing.
"Won't someone see us out here?" worried Valindor as he eyed the tiny windows looking down at us from all sides.
"My family does not care for living things. Only mother. They called her strange..." Serana meandered about the space, peering at the algae choked pond on the northern side, then the small, but wild patch of nightshade on the eastern wall. She murmured in her native tongue, the words rolling and dipping in an odd cadence, appearing to be lost in thought. Distractedly, her nimble fingers plucked dead leaves and heads of flowers.
"Fine time to be weeding the garden," huffed the Bosmer. "Where are we supposed to go now anyway?"
"This is such a dismal place." I shivered in a cool breeze that gusted down the funnel-like walls.
"Yes, but even Y'ffre has his influence here. I don't like her family, but at least one of them had the sense to appreciate life for what it is."
I gawked at my friend, astonished that he would admit to anything positive about the vampires. When I turned to tease him about it, my foot scuffed on the loose gravel, sending crushed pebbles skittering across the sundial. The sound of the tiny stones pinging down below had me on my hands and knees with my ear pressed against the ground. Experimentally, I dropped a few more rocks down a crack in the tiles.
"What are you doing?"
"There's a cavity below the sundial. I wonder where it goes or how we get down there."
Just then, Serana approached holding one of the missing plagues for the device, laying it reverently down in its missing place. "Mother would want this fixed. This place... So much broken." Somehow, I felt something was supposed to happen when that plaque was put back in its place, and when nothing did, disappointment weighed down on my heart.
"Serana. What's underneath this device?" I asked, tapping the tiles with my boots to see if any would trigger some kind of opening.
"I...do not know. Stone? Ground? Why?"
"I can hear empty space under here. Do you know of any enchantment on the dial itself?"
"No... Mother came out here at night to watch the moons. Sometimes, she did not come back for many days. I searched and could not always find her. I searched castle everywhere. Do you think she is hiding under the moondial?" With a shrug, I shook my head, unsure. If Serana's mother went into hiding, this seemed like a very likely place to be doing so. "I go to fix rest of dial. Then we wait for moonrise. We will do what mother did, maybe we will see something."
Valindor and I busied ourselves with inspecting the rest of the courtyard and enjoying a reprieve from the cramped crypt-like ruins of the castle. Overhead, the sky was already edging toward sunset as bright orange streaks blazed across the thin clouds. Together, we sat on the collapsed balcony, feeling safer near the barricaded doorway, and watched the vampire search for the scattered plaques of the moondial. It was only then I realized that the dial truly wasn't showing the position of the sun or time of day--it didn't even have a shadow, which was something that escaped me when I first set eyes on the thing.
We took our meal on the balcony, and I took the liberty of resting my head on Val's shoulder, trying not to feel bored or impatient as we waited.
I wondered where the spriggan from Y'ffre had gone, and why I hadn't seen her since we escaped that crypt. Something about her absence felt like an ominous sign from the Aedra. What if my present course wasn't something he wanted me to do? But if that was the case, why did the spriggan lead me to Fort Dawnguard? Was I supposed to kill Serana? Or bring her to the Dawnguard? As we sat in the growing dark, I felt the madness of my own mission as obvious as the aurora blazing in the sky. If Valindor's behavior was any indicator, every step was leading away from Y'ffre and into some unknown place. It's too late to turn back now, though.
"Look!" The Bosmer's clear voice broke my thoughts and I followed his pointing finger to where Jode's red belly was breaching the walls of the courtyard. His red light shone dimly down over the courtyard, slowly inching toward the moondial, whose plaques seemed to glow in the moonlight. When the light covered the device in its entirety, the mirrors blazed brightly and a stony click reverberated off the walls.
"Mother's hiding place!" cried Serana as the gnomon slowly spun to reveal a set of stairs. Eagerly, the vampire dashed down them, waving to us enthusiastically before disappearing behind, what sounded like, a wooden door. Reluctantly, Valindor and I followed.
The door opened into the most unlikely of places: a kitchen. Cooking pots hung over long dead fires, while candles glimmered to display a table littered with pieces of rotted meat and old bones. Dried herbs faintly masked the smell of decayed flesh and soured wines.
A hallway led off from the kitchen, short stairs leading to a low, empty hall. Spider webs with strands as thick as ropes clung to the ceiling and draping messily across arches. They bore none of the grace of smaller spiders, preferring speed of placement over efficiency of design. Using a bone and old cloth I found on an abandoned sideboard, I lit my makeshift torch and burned a path through the webbing. We saw no sign of Serana; no premade path through the webs suggested passage nor were there any footprints in the dust.
I resisted calling out for her, knowing it would draw attention to anything waiting for us. This is a trap. I know it. It can't be anything else. Why else would she leave us like this? Questions and paranoid thoughts spun ceaselessly in my head. Occasionally, I caught a glimpse of a species of sick triumph flickering across Valindor's features. Why don't you just say "I told you so'' already, I thought scathingly toward him, then remembered he couldn't hear my thoughts the way Derkeethus could. Nevertheless, I had to remain calm. I couldn't let my friend see I was worried, lest he take to questioning my mission again.
When his hand gripped mine, it was, however, a small comfort. At least I wasn't the only one worried.
The hall ended abruptly in a collapsed section in the rock. For a moment, I thought there was no way to go, but through a particularly thick swath of webbing glimmered dim light that lit the strands in a silvery shimmer. After burning through this, we discovered a gap in the wall just large enough for us to squeeze through. We emerged into a moonlit stairwell.
"Henny," Val whispered in my ear, "wait a minute."
"What?" His fingers plucked at my hair, tugging at it. "What are you doing?"
"Spider web." With a sickle smile, he sat down on the stairs, flinging the sticky stands futilely from his hands. While he fought with webbing, I strode by him, intending to continue our journey. "Why don't we rest for the night?"
"We're almost there. I know it. It has to be here. Somewhere. I bet that's where Serana's mother is hiding. Just a little further."
"You're starting to sound a little like Dervenin, you know. Sit down. It's late, and you're tired. I can see it on your face plain as day."
"No. Come on, we can make it a little further. Please, Val." We stared at each other for some minutes, a silent battle of wills raging behind our eyes. Eventually, victory was mine and Validnor relented, getting to his feet with a resigned sigh.
"How can I resist?" Stretching, he got to his feet and rubbed tiredly at his eyes.
Our feet crunched quietly in the dusty corridors, all of which felt just as abandoned and empty as the last. The tension mounted as I continually recalled the cave holding the White Phial, where we were so neatly trapped at the end by an Imperial legate and his soldiers. This time, we were the ones following, but the sensation remained the same.
At last, we came to a dining room lit by high chandeliers set in an even higher ceiling. Forks and knives were lain upon the table as if in preparation for a meal that never arrived. A set of stairs led to a loft-like platform.
"Damn it!" spat a familiar voice.
An unearthly scream followed that rent the air and stood our hair on end. I drew my sword, muscles twitching in fear and adrenaline. Nails on stone screeched above us as if to emphasize the display of horror, though nothing came down the stairs at us. Ice crashed against the walls and heavy, shuffling steps accompanied the flap of wings. A dragon! Valindor's face showed the same conclusion, and we rushed up the stairs both to see this marvel and protect the owner of the voice.
However, the top of the steps revealed not a dragon, but one of the winged Imga statues come to life. Its stubby wings flapped to maintain its balance and provide it with propulsion as it charged Serana. Val's arrows glanced off its sides as if they struck impenetrable rock. Instead, they served only to enrage the creature further.
"No! I have this under control!" The vampire seemed to do nothing more than irritate the thing with her magic. I dashed into the fray, going for its paltry excuses for wings, tearing at the thick leather with my blade. My arms trembled at the effort--it was like trying to cut through a door. When I stabbed at its eyes, I found it had none to be harmed.
"How do we kill this thing?" I cried as I fell to the floor to dodge a swipe at my midsection. With a roar, it stomped the ground, just missing my spine as I rolled away from its cloven feet.
"Bring it down to the tables! I have an idea!" Valindor slowly danced around us, trying to appear as inconspicuous as possible as we lured the enraged Imga down toward the tables, even managing to force it to leap onto one. The wood groaned under the weight of the beast, but the sound was overshadowed by the shrill screech of metal as brittle links in the chandelier's chain snapped.
We leapt out of the way in time for the monstrosity to be trapped by the ornate fixture. Serana clapped both of her hands on either side of its head, sending a spell through its form with so much force that her eyes glowed a horrific red with the effort. Finally, it collapsed onto the table, crumbling apart as if it had always been made of inert stone. I sighed, almost laughing in my relief.
"I found where mother is hiding," Serana said after we had all caught our breath.
Comments
BTW Serana here is heartless and emotionless(typical undead) wich makes her a lot like her game counterpart if never interacted(talked to)